LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



White Lilies 



FROM THE 



KING'S GARDEN, 



GATHERED BY 



BETJLAH, 









\ 



{ 21 










ALBANY, N. Y. : 

Burdick & Taylor, Printers and Publishers, 481 Broadway. 

1881. 



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■pj*l& 



** 



The Library 
of Congress 

washington 



Copyrighted, 1881, by BURDICK & TAYLOR, Albany, N. Y. 



PKEFACE, 



Pure thoughts are like white lilies. White lilies 
are modest, unassuming little flowers, often hidden 
from sight by their more pretentious neighbors, 
but much sought after by all who love the beau- 
tiful in nature; their presence may always be de- 
tected by their fragrance. 

Thoughts of purity are like them ; sweet, and 
modest, and beautiful, they grow only in the gar- 
den of the Lord. He plants them, His hand alone 
tends them, He causes the Sun of Righteousness 
to shine upon them, and waters them with showers 
of blessing; then His children gather them, and 
rejoice in their beauty and fragrance. He has 
given me, one of His little ones, the privilege of 
gathering some of them, and now, after binding 
them together with many prayers, I send them 
out, hoping that some who live outside the King's 
garden may find them pleasant, and be induced 
to come in and gather for themselves. God 

grant it. 

BEIJLAH. 



CONTENTS. 

PAGE. 

Experience. 7 

The Soul's Cry 35 

Jesus Only 37 

The Lord's Lilies 41 

The Image of the Heavenly 45 

The Lord's Everlastings 49 

The Children's Saviour 53 

Who Will Save Him? 55 

In the Sunshine 62 

We Would See Jesus 66 

How to be Strong 69 

Don't Try to Lower the Standard 73 

My Dream 78 

Rest 84 

Must and May 90 

Praise Him 92 

A Baptism of Love . . . 98 



vi Contents. 

Voices 102 

In a Strait Betwixt Two 108 

On Whom Do You Wait?... Ill 

Jesus Did it All 117 

Taught of God 119 

Half and Half 124 

Something Better 132 

How the Message Came 140 

Words that Burn 143 

Deliverance 152 

God's Word 161 

The White Stone 166 

The Divine Anointing 170 

Soul Music 176 



EXPERIENCE. 

"lam come unto the country which the Lord sware 
unto our fathers for to give us." 

" He hath brought us unto this place, and hath given us 
this land, even a land that floweth with milk and honey." 

44 And now, behold I have brought the first fruits of the 
land, which thou, O Lord, hast given me." 

[Y friends have asked me to begin this little 
volume by relating my own experience. I 
suppose they mean that they want me to tell how 
I found my way into the land of Beulah, what 
kind of a country I find it to be, and how I enjoy 
living here : and this I gladly do. If through anv 
worthiness of my own I had come into possession 
of this goodly heritage, I think I should say noth- 
ing about it. I do not believe in such boasting. 
But because the dear Lord, who is pitiful, and 
long-suffering, and most wonderfully kind, and 
who knew just how helpless, and sinful, and un- 
deserving I was, loved me notwithstanding all, 



8 White Lilies 

and gave me deliverance from the hard bondage 
of sin, and a dwelling place in this, u heaven's 
border land," I delight in serving Him ; and, be- 
cause I know He longs to do the same for all who 
are not free in Christ Jesus, but are willing to be 
set at liberty, I take great pleasure in telling the 
story of my deliverance. " Come and hear, all ye 
that fear God, and I will declare what He hath 
done for my soul." 

When a little girl, I gave my heart to Jesus. 
Our pastor held a number of children's meetings, 
some of my school-mates attended, and were con- 
verted, and then they persuaded me to go with 
them. Thank God for children's meetings ; lam 
glad their number is increasing. I went with my 
friends because I believed they were really con- 
verted. I had a good opportunity for watching 
them, for I was with them every day at school, 
and noted all their words and actions critically, 
because I thought if I could only prove to my 
own satisfaction, that they were no better than I, 
why, then I would have good excuse for not 
listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit, which 



From the King's Garden. 9 

was constantly urging me to make my peace with 
God. But I saw that my school-mates, though 
they did wrong sometimes, were possessed of 
something of which I was entirely ignorant. 

I noted it in their faces as we sang the hymn at 
the opening of school, and at numberless other 
times, and it gave me a lonely feeling, as if there 
was a great gulf between my companions and 
myself, and then I began to think how far I was 
from God, and to long to get near Him, and wish 
I knew the way. 

I had been shown the way time without num- 
ber, and yet I knew not how to find it. I was 
glad, therefore, when my friends invited me to go 
to the meeting with them, for I did not like to 
propose it myself. I remember just how our aged 
pastor laid his hand on my shoulder, and told me 
he was glad I had come. I remember how sim- 
ple his explanation of Bible truth, and how child- 
like his prayer, and 0, how I longed to become a 
Christian. 

But it was not until I reached home that I 
received the pardon of my sins. Then, while 



10 White Lilies 

alone in my room, after yielding all to God, the 
thought came to me that God had said, if I gave 
myself to Him, He would receive and save me. 
Then, I thought, as I have given myself to Him, 
it must be that He saves me, according to His 
word, and instantly I received the witness that 
He did accept me as His child, and although the 
enemy has tried to rob me of peace in almost 
every other way, he has never tried to persuade 
me that I was not converted at that time. The 
evidence was so clear there was no room for the 
shadow of a doubt. 

I shall never forget the joy that filled my soul 
at that time. Why, it even glorified my sur- 
roundings, and I thought I had never seen such 
sunshine as I saw the next morning, and the trees 
and flowers looked 0, so beautiful, and my soul 
was just full of gladness. 

Then the first prayer-meeting I attended ! I 
had attended very few in my life-time, previous 
to my conversion, and surely I had never attended 
such a wonderful one as that. Whenever the 
name of God was spoken, my glad heart would 



From the King's Garden. 11 

respond, He is my Father ; and when they spoke 
of heaven, I smiled to think it was my home. I 
have reason to think that some considered it 
rather a dull meeting, but to me it was very 
precious, for I met the dear Savior there, and His 
presence makes even desert places rejoice. 

One blessed feature of my experience was the 
freedom I had from the fear of death which, pre- 
vious to this time, had always haunted me. 
This was now taken completely away. God had 
delivered mv soul from death, and I conld not 
worry about the death of the body. In fact my 
cup of blessing seemed so full that I suppose I 
should have been willing to tabernacle right there, 
but my Father had better things for me even 
than this, so He did not suffer me to abide there. 

In those days there was but one thing that 
troubled me ; that was my propensity for sinning 
against God, and it began to worry me the very 
first day after my conversion ; not seriously at 
first, but as the days went by my trouble in re- 
gard to it increased. I do not mean that I became 
more sinful as the days went by, but as I received 



12 White Lilies 

more light, and my love for my Savior became 
more and more intense, I could not bear to grieve 
Him, and yet it seemed as if I could not help 
sinning sometimes. I was delivered from the 
guilt, but not from the power of sin. 

I wondered if everybody was troubled as I was. 
I spoke to the other girls about it, and they all 
had the same difficulty. I listened eagerly to the 
testimonies of older Christians. I heard them 
say they often went astray, and made crooked 
paths. 1 heard them sing " Prone to wander, 
Lord, I feel it." They said it was their experi- 
ence; I knew it was mine ; I did not want it to 
be ; I hated this propensity to sin ; I hated my- 
self for having it, but I did not cry to God to 
deliver me from it, for I had been taught that 
deliverance came only at death. Then I began 
to long for death, for any thing that would bring 
deliverance. 

In those days I knew that I enjoyed the favor 
of God ; He gave me wonderful answers to 
prayer ; He kindly used me to bring others to 
Him ; and the more blessings He showered upon 



From the King's Garden. 13 

me, the more intense became my sorrow at griev- 
ing Him, and yet it seemed that when I would do 
good, evil was present with me. 

Thus the years went by. I was satisfied with 
my Saviour, but more and more thoroughly dis- 
gusted with myself, because I would keep sin- 
ning and repenting. Sometimes for weeks I 
would have no uneasiness on the subject, and 
then again my soul would rebel against such 
bondage, especially if in my Bible readings I came 
to such passages as this : "He brought me up 
also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, 
and set my feet upon a rock, and established my 
goings." I knew my goings were not established 
in His ways, or I would not step aside as often 
as I did, and then I would wonder again if it were 
possible for one to be so established that his foot- 
steps would not slip. I have heard people say 
they had their " ups and downs " in their religious 
life. If by this they meant that they had times of 
victory and times of defeat, times of trusting and 
times of doubting, seasons of blessed soul rest, 
and seasons of weary unrest, I must confess to 
2 



14 White Lilies 

the same experience. 0, why did no one tell me 
that God had provided a better experience than 
this for His children ? 

God is good to His own, and He planned a 
wav of deliverance for me. It must have been 
about two years from the time I united with the 
Church, and nearly six from the time of my con- 
version, that our pastor and a number of our 
Church people attended a National camp-meeting, 
and when they returned, they told me of such 
wonderful baptisms of love and power received 
there, that I was astonished, and listened to their 
words with almost breathless interest. I had seen 
people wonderfully baptized of God before this, 
had received some rich anointings myself, but 
what puzzled me in this case was the fact that 
the anointing seemed to abide with them ; they 
were always happy, and strong, and ready for 
service. 

When they spoke in meeting, their words, 
though simple, had a mysterious power about 
them, making their hearers feel that they surely 
had an unction from the Holy One. As I listened, 



From the King's Garden. 15 

all my longings that I had resolutely tried to put 
away, revived in all their force. I wanted to 
know how to obtain the experience these people 
were talking about. I longed to ask them about 
it, but as I was not intimately acquainted with 
any of them, T did not feel free to do so. 

I heard them call the blessing they had re- 
ceived, Ghristian perfection. I asked some of my 
friends what was meant by this term, and was 
given to understand that it was a blessing pro- 
fessed by some persons who made themselves 
equal with God, by claiming that it was impossi- 
ble for them to sin, and that they also claimed to 
be so good that they were lifted above trials and 
temptations, so that they did not feel them at all, 
and I was warned to keep away from all such 
fanatics. 

I was very sure I did not want to get where I 
would think myself equal with God, neither did 
I want to become so hardened that I should be 
indifferent to trials and temptations, for in that 
case I should have no feeling at all, and if this 
was what these people professed, I wanted notb- 



16 White Lilies 

ing to do with them, but certainly they did not 
talk so. 

I took such delight in their simple, humble 
expressions of confidence in God, and stories of 
His wonderful saving and keeping power, that 
when I entered the prayer-room I would count 
how many of them were present, and become im- 
patient when others spoke or prayed. I wanted 
these to have all the time. After all of them 
had taken part in the meeting, I would give a 
little sigh, and settling back in my seat, would 
lose all interest in the rest of the meeting. This, 
of course, was wrong, but then my heart was 
wrong. I have heard it said that if we knew God 
had sanctified our souls, we should keep silence 
about it, lest we should appear to be boasting. I 
have great reason to praise God that these people 
thought it good to tell how gloriously He saved 
them ; if they had not, I cannot tell what would 
have become of me. 

I determined to have this experience at all 
hazards. I knew I could not live much longer 
as I was then living. I was afraid I should back- 



From the King's Garden. 17 

slide. I did not want to, and yet it seemed as if 
I must. I cried mightily to God for help, and 
determined to try and live one day without doing, 
or saying, or even thinking any thing wrong. I 
thought if I exercised enough will-power, and 
asked God to help me, I must succeed, and then 
if I could keep right one day, I would try an- 
other, and, perhaps, I could live so every day. 

After trying many times, I succeeded by much 
anxiety, and pra} r er, and watchfulness, in accom- 
plishing my purpose ; at least I thought I did. I 
felt wonderfully elated at my success. I thought 
I and God had done great things. I would not 
have told it in that way, but I see now that was 
the w r ay I felt about it. I was greatly encour- 
aged, and thought I would try another day. 
After slipping many, many times, I again suc- 
ceeded. But these days of what I called success 
were not days of blessed restfulness ; on the con- 
trary, they were days of unrest, of constant fear 
lest I should fall. I had little time to think of 
helping others ; it took all my time to watch my- 
self, and I had to struggle constantly to keep self 



18 White Lilies 

in subjection. Yet I cared not how severe the 
struggle, if only T could please Him who died for 
me. 

I determined to try and live in this way a 
whole week. The last day of my week was the 
Sabbath, and I commenced it with a glad heart, 
for I now felt sure I had found a way to live 
right, but alas for my hopes, I had fallen before 
time for the. morning service. 

My soul was like a fort, surrounded by ene- 
mies who were seeking to capture it, but were 
kept out by the trusty soldier who would never 
have suffered them to enter, only that there were 
traitors within, who were constantly on the alert 
to help the foes outside. God was showing me 
that it was not help to keep these traitors in sub- 
jection that I needed, but deliverance from them. 

After the failure I have last recorded, I made up 
my mind that it was presumption for me to think 
that God would give one as young as I was, the 
rich experience enjoyed by those who were older 
in years and in religious life. I determined to 
struggle in this way no longer. I would serve 



From the King's Garden. 19 

God the best I knew how : I would work for 
Dim, and strive to please Him in every way, but 
I would give up seeking this experience of rest 
from inbred sin ; not because I wanted to, but 
because I thought I must. 

This was at the close of the year eighteen hun- 
dred and seventy-one, the winter following the 
camp-meeting of winch I have spoken. The last 
day of the year was the Sabbath. I made up my 
mind to get just as much help and joy that day 
as possible. As I took my seat in Church in the 
morning, I noticed an old gentleman, whom I had 
never seen before, seated with our pastor. I 
hoped he would not preach, for I felt I needed 
one of the good, helpful sermons T was in the 
habit of hearing; on Sunday morning. However, 
our pastor introduced him as the Kev. Seymour 
Coleman, and said he had promised to preach for 
us. 

And he did preach. I do not remember the 
text; I cannot recall one sentence of his ser- 
mon, but if I had told him the history of my 
struggles, and he had been trying to repeat it to 



20 White Lilies 

the people, he could not have described my case 
more accurately. 

Tears of vexation rose to my eyes. I was im- 
patient with the dear old man, and wished he 
w T asin any Church on the face of the earth, that 
Sunday morning, except ours. You see I was 
very heart-sore and weary, and did not like to 
have my trouble talked about. As his sermon 
progressed I became indignant, and said in my 
heart, " If he does not have such struggles, and 
knows that we do, and that we cannot help it, 
why need he talk about them just to tease us ? " 
Ah ! I did not understand that he was searching 
deep for the last seed of the disease, before pre- 
scribing the remedy. 

After he had described all my difficulties to 
me (for I forgot there were others present, and 
felt as if he was talking only to me) and ex- 
plained my trouble in all its details, to my great 
astonishment and joy he showed me that Jesus 
stood waiting to give me a complete cure; that 
lie not only had power on earth to forgive sins, 
but also to cleanse from all unrighteousness, and 



From the King's Garden. 21 

that it was His good pleasure to cleanse my heart 
then and there. "Behold, NOW is the day of 
salvation." His words were like cold water to 
my thirsty soul, like good news from a far coun- 
try — even the land of Beulah. Indeed, I no 
longer felt it to be a far country. It seemed as 
if the dear Lord said to me, "I will give it thee," 
and that I stood on its border, with only the Jor- 
dan of separation rolling between. Of course my 
glad heart said, "I will go in and possess the 
good land." 

But when I came to pass over this Jordan, I 
found the separation very close work. I was sur- 
prised and ashamed to find that, after all, I really 
loved some of the traitors in my heart, and when 
I told them I had*resolved to let the good Lord 
cast them out, they pleaded so piteously to be 
allowed to remain, that it cost me a severe strug- 
gle to remain firm in my determination, but in 
the strength of the Lord I was enabled to do so. 
I asked Him to search my heart by His Holy 
Spirit, and bring every idol and every hidden foe 
to light. I had a hard struggle with my will, 



22 White Lilies 

before it would promise to always yield to God's 
will, and unbelief seemed determined not to leave 
me. But every time I had to struggle with an 
enemy, I would cry to the Lord, and He would 
bind the foe and cast him out. 

I consecrated my all to Grod in solemn covenant, 
searching my heart, again and again, and asking 
Him to search it, for I felt I could not be satis- 
fied with my own searching simply, but that Pie 
could and would do the work thoroughly. I was 
tested in many ways. The question came to me: 
If the Lord sanctifies your soul, sets you apart 
entirely for Himself, will you obey Him in all 
things ? Then I thought of many places to which 
I might be called to go, and many things that I 
might be called to do, and to suffer, and 0, how 
I shrank from them. At last I said I would be 
willing, but I cannot; lam not strong enough ; 
when the time came for me to do them, I know I 
should not be able. I never felt so utterly help- 
less in my life before. 

This was on the afternoon of the sixteenth of 
January, eighteen hundred and seventy- two. I 



From the King's Garden. 23 

attended a meeting that afternoon for the special 
purpose of helping those who desired this experi- 
ence, to obtain it. Someway, in spite of my help- 
lessness, I never felt so near to God before. I 
thought I would love to let Him control me, and 
just follow close to Him all the time, but it 
seemed useless for me to say that I would, for I 
knew that when I came to some of those hard 
places I should fail, and so break my promise to 
Him. I said in my heart, I would like to please 
Him in all things, but I cannot 

And then came floating through my mind these 
words : " I will, but Thou must give the 
power/' Then I saw just how it w r as to be done. 
I, truly, had no power, but I had a mighty 
Saviour. All power had been given unto Him. 
I was not to keep myself, but to give myself to 
Him, moment by moment, for keeping, and 0, it 
all seemed so simple and easy that I could not 
worry about it any more. 

I think that the dear Lord cleansed my heart 
then. I went home feeling very quiet. I had 
no witness that the work was done, only I had 



24 White Lilies 

stopped worrying about it, and was trusting the 
Lord to do it. 

Just before time for evening service I went to 
my room for communion with my Saviour, and 
just as I had (inished my prayer the witness came. 
And with the witness of cleansing, came the filling 
of the Spirit. The Lord whom I sought, came 
suddenly into His purified temple, even as He has 
promised. What was it like ? I cannot tell you. 
I know of nothing with which to compare it. 
The language of Canaan, rich as it is, has no words 
to describe it. If you have received it, you know ; 
if not, let Jesus show you. 

But I had such a perfect rest. I, who had been 
so weary ! And such a sense of freedom ; before 
I had seemed so circumscribed in all my attempts 
to do the Father's will, limited by my own feeble 
faith, so that I dared not venture out boldly, 
claiming my right, through the promises, to con- 
tinual and complete victory. Now, all was 
changed. Perfect trust gave perfect freedom, 
and Jesus gave both, praise His dear name. I 
knew then what He meant when He said : " If 



Prom the King's Garden. 25 

the son, therefore, shall make you free, ye shall be 
free indeed." I seemed to have been brought out 
into a large place, where there was plenty of room. 
The whole land was before me, and I had a right 
to live there, and enjoy its rich fruits. My Father 
seemed to say to me : "Lift up now thine eyes, 
and look from the place where thou art, north- 
ward, and southward, and eastward and westward ; 
for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I 
give it." And much more than I could see has 
He promised me, even exceeding abundantly 
above all my asking or thinking. " All things 
are yours, and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's." 
Yes, I was Christ's — hidden in Him. And all 
the fullness of salvation and blessing I had re- 
ceived, came to me as the result of being thus 
hidden. " For it pleased the Father that in Him 
should all fullness dwell." I had a right to sit 
at His feet, and constantly look up into His loving 
face with the assurance that He was pleased with 
me, because I wore the white robe of His right- 
eousness. 

O, wonderful Redeemer ! I was so captivated 
3 



26 White Lilies 

by His charms, that even His rich gifts were small 
as compared with the glorious Giver. T belonged 
to Him. My glad heart owned His right to con- 
trol me. It seemed a blessed privilege to obe}^ 
Him, to suffer and bear crosses for Him, and to 
yield to His will in all things. My ransomed soul 
knew no bondage save that of love which bound 
me to Him, and made me perfectly free. 

Did I feel as if I was perfect? Well, no. I 
felt as if I was the weakest of all God's children, 
and altogether unworthy of His favor, and have 
felt so ever since, but' what difference did my 
weakness and unworthiness make? I had a per- 
fect Saviour, and He saved me perfectly. I was 
complete in Him. Some object to the use of the 
terms Christian perfection, holiness, sanctifica- 
tion, and similar words, in speaking of this one- 
ness with Christ, but these are the Scriptural 
names for it, and certainly we cannot better them. 
It must honor the name of our Saviour more to 
say that He is able to save to the uttermost, and 
we have proved Him so in our own experience, 
than to say we are the children of this mighty 



From the King's Garden. 27 

Healer, that the great Physician is our Father, 
and vet the disease of sin clings to us, making it 
appear that either He is not able to make us 
whole, or else we are neglecting to obtain the 
cure. It certainly reflects on His ability as a 
physician of souls, to say we are so diseased that 
He cannot cure us completely, and if we know 
the healing is for us and refuse to accept it be- 
cause of our unworthiness, does it not show fool- 
ishness on our part, rather than humility? lam 
afraid many do what I had so long been doing — 
look at themselves, and seeing their own sinful- 
ness and utter helplessness — say they do not 
believe they can be saved from their tendency to 
sin, when, if they would only look up and con- 
sider the exceeding greatness of His power, who, 
in His Word, has given us the promise " Sin shall 
not have dominion over you ; " they would 

" Laugh at impossibilities, 

And cry ■ It shall be done.' " 

But now that I had ceased trying to help my- 
self, and was simply trusting Him to supply all 
my needs, I found Him able to save me fully, 



28 White Lilies 

and though nearly nine years have elapsed since 
that time, He has kept me every moment. These 
have been wonderful years, so short and so full of 
blessing. They have been years of rest, too, not 
rest from the Master's work — I would not enjoy 
that — but rest in it. Not rest from tria'l, and 
temptation, and conflict, but from the hard bond- 
age of sin. Jesus is able to keep us from sinning. 
I do not mean from mistakes from errors in 
judgment, nor from wrong-doing through ignor- 
ance, I mean from sin that brings condemnation 
to the soul. " The blood of Jesus Christ His Son 
cleanseth us from all sin," and I have been kept 
clean all these years, not because my heart was 
cleansed at the beginning, but because it is 
cleansed every moment. 

One called my attention, the other day, to the 
fact that little pebbles in a brook are kept clean 
because they are in the brook, where the water 
flows over them constantly, while if they were 
taken out and placed on the bank, they would 
soon become soiled and dusty : so my soul is 
kept from the pollution of sin, because hidden in 



From the King's Garden. 29 

Christ. "Whosoever abideth in Him, sinneth 
not."' 

Since I became a resident of this Beulah land, 
I have been led in ways that seemed very strange 
to me, and as wonderful as thev were strange. 
Iii the first place, I have never been called upon 
to do and bear many of the things over which I 
struggled so when making my consecration : per- 
haps a willing spirit was all the sacrifice the dear 
Lord required of me. Then I have had to do 
and bear many things 1 never dreamed of at that 
time, but He has put His strong arm about me, 
and led me through them triumphantly. 0, it is 
glorious when surrounded by foes, when com- 
pletely hedged in bv the enemv, to know that 
He is one with us, that our cause is His cause, 
and victory is certain to Him. Ofttimes we hear 
His sweet voice say : " Ye shall not need to 
fight in this battle/' Then we just stand still 
and witness His salvation. In time of severe 
conflict, one pleading, trustful look up into His 
loving face, will do more for us than days of hard 
fighting : then we go out and in His name com- 



SO White Lilies 

mand our foes to make room for us, and they 
shrink away, while we pass by unharmed. 

With this wonderful blessing came an over- 
whelming desire to work for the Master. I had 
enjoyed working for Him before, but a sense of 
my own shortcomings had continually crippled 
me. Now I was free — free in Christ Jesus; 
how my soul exulted in the thought. I said, " I 
will show those who say that this fullness in Christ 
is only for old people and sick people, that it is 
for strong, young people, too. Surely if God 
could make such a complete cure in my case, no 
one need despair of healing." My heavenly- 
Father indulged me in these desires for a little 
time, and 0, how I did enjoy running here and 
there, anywhere He bade me go, doing His er- 
rands. 

Then there was a change, and my service be- 
came one of suffering, yet I knew the Master 
counted it a service still. There have been long 
hours of waiting, too, when, though released from 
suffering, I could not go about working for my 
dear Lord as formerly, and then He sent the work 



From the King's Garden. 31 

to me, and always, under all circumstances, my 
soul has been full of gladness in Jesus. And 
though now I am becoming well and strong, I 
would esteem it a privilege to pass again through 
those same trials, that I might receive those same 
rich baptisms, only I know they were not the 
result of suffering and waiting, but of delighting 
in the will of my God, and He doesn't want me to 
have those experiences over again, but fuller, 
richer, deeper ones. 

But what if I should fall? I do not believe 
there is much danger of falling from such a low 
place. Before I received this blessing I thought 
it impossible to lose it after once gained. I 
thought a faith simple enough to receive it, must 
be strong enough to retain it, but have heard 
since, to my great sorrow, that some have fallen 
from this state of grace. I think such a fall 
must be great and terrible, but I do not fear it, 
for Jesus has given me rest from fear of evil 
according to His promise. I know there are 
dangers on every hand. I know my foes are 
strong and cunning, and understand me better 



82 White Lilies 

than I do myself ; if I were to consider only my 
weakness as contrasted with the strength of the 
enemy, my courage would fail me and I should 
fall at once. But I have great cause for thankful- 
ness that there are no traitors in my heart now, 
and then, I am hidden in Christ. I know He is 
able to keep me ; after all His kindness to me I can- 
not doubt His willingness, and so I expect He will. 

"For I know the thoughts that I think toward 
you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not 
of evil, to give you an expected end." Every morn- 
ing T tell Him I am depending on Him to keep 
me through the day, and He does it. Every time 
I am beset by temptations I tell Him I expect 
victory in His name, and He gives it to me, and 
when even my trust in Him is assailed, I look to 
Him to keep me trusting, and am kept. The 
promises make such a broad standing place, the 
everlasting arms are so strong, and the constrain- 
ing power of His love so great, that I see no 
reason why even my poor soul need fear. 

Dear friend, does all this sound to you like 
boasting? Well, [ have a right to boast on the 



From the King's Garden. 33 

authority of God's Word : "Let him thatglorieth 
glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth 
Me." But if you think those who are hidden in 
Christ feel like exalting themselves because of it, 
you are seriously mistaken. Self did not yield 
to crucifixion without a mighty struggle, and 
none of us care to see it exalted again. 

In my intercourse with Christians, I meet with 
so many who say they are not satisfied. They 
know they are accepted of God, they have a hope 
in Christ, and a knowledge of their love for Him, 
and His for them, they would not relinquish for 
all the treasures of earth, but — and then comes 
a long catalogue of evils, all of which are the re- 
sults of a heart not cleansed from all unrighteous- 
ness. Such sing : 

" Our souls how heavily they go, 
To grasp eternal joys," 



and, 



" Jesus, and shall we ever live, 
At this poor, dying rate ? 

Our love so faint, so cold to Thee, 
And Thine to us so great," 



34 White Lilies 

0, that all these unsatisfied ones would take 
the best book on holiness — the Holy Bible, and 
sitting down at the feet of the Lord Jesus, the 
great Teacher of holiness, would learn what is the 
hope of their calling, and the exceeding greatness 
of His power toward us who believe, and then 
take from His hand the rich inheritance He offers. 
Their song would then be changed to one of rest, 
and gladness, and triumph in Jesus. 




From the King's Garden. 35 



THE SOUL'S CRY. 

"Thou that dwellest in the gardens, the companions 
harken to thy voice ; cause me to hear it. " 

ill THOU, whose dwelling place 
xj Is in the gardens found, 
Where lilies of immortal peace 

Their fragrance shed around ; 
Where flowers of hope and love 

And joy immortal bloom, 
Thy smile, the sunshine of that place, 

Beams ever bright as noon. 

There the companions hear 

Thy dear melodious voice, 
They listen to its accents sweet, 

It makes their hearts rejoice; 
Thy presence to their souls, 

A perfect rest has given; 
By faith they walk with Thee on earth, 

Till called to live in heaven. 



36 White Lilies 

Jesus, I bring to Thee, 

My heart by sin oppressed, 
Fightings without, and foes within, 

O, give the weary rest. 
Grant, Lord, that even I 

May hear Thee say to me — 
" My blood now cleanses from all sin, 

My Spirit makes thee free." 

To Thee, I lift mine eyes, 

Thou Lamb for sinners slain, 
My soul for all Thy fullness cries, 

None ever sought in vain ; 
Now may I ever walk 

In Thy delightful ways, 
In heart and voice and life unite 

In everlasting praise. 



From the King's Garden. 87 



JESUS ONLY. 

" And when they had lifted up their eyes they saw — 
Jesus only " 

fHE souls whom Jesus has made free turn to 
Him for light and strength, just as flowers do 
j 

to the sun. ' He is our sun, He lights our way. 
When amid the perplexing duties of life, we feel 
that we have need of wisdom greater than our 
own, to know the path of duty that we may walk 
in it, we look to Jesus, and in the light of Him 
"who is made unto us wisdom,' 1 crooked ways 
are made straight, and rough places plain, so that 
we cannot lose our way if we walk just where He 
shows us. But He has promised to guide us 
with His eye, and if we would have His guid- 
ance, we must keep our eyes uplifted to Him, and 
watch every moment, to see which way He is look- 
ing. If we do this He will lead us in the right 
way. ye, who so often turn aside, and make 
4 



38 White Lilies 

crooked paths for your feet, Jesus wants to lead 
you all the time. Will you let Him ? 

Jesus is our burden-bearer. How I pity those 
who go through the world carrying heavy bur- 
dens, and no Jesus to bear them for them. But I 
have known some Christians who seemed to think 
it too much for Jesus to save them and bear their 
burdens too. O, let all such bring their burdens 
to Him ; not only the great crosses and heavy 
burdens (Jesus wants to carry all of these) but 
the little burdensome trials of life, the petty an- 
noyances, the little teasing things that occur every 
day, over and over again, and you cannot escape 
them, but you can take them to Jesus, and He 
will bear them for you ; He will keep you patient 
and sweet-spirited right through them all ;. He is 
longing to do it for you. Will you let Him ? 

Jesus is our shield ; He has promised to defend 
us ; He has been my shield many times. When 
called to contend with foes strong and powerful, 
I have fled to Jesus, my hiding place, and although 
I could not escape the conflict, Jesus has gone 
right into the battle with me, and fought for m e, 



From the King's Garden. 39 

and He has never yet lost a battle. He wants to 
fight your battle for you. Will you let Him ? 

But a shield can only defend from foes without, 
what can those do who have foes within their 
hearts? Those who fight against inbred sin, 
against doubts and fears, and are often overcome 
in the struggle, and sometimes led into captivity, 
how can these be delivered? By just letting 
Jesus deliver you. You can never deliver your- 
selves; years of struggling will not set you free; 
but Jesus can do it in a moment — in the twink- 
ling of an eye ; He wants to do it ; He is pleading 
with you to let Him do it. Will you let Him ? 

Jesus is our joy — our crown of rejoicing. 
Great, very great, was our joj^ at the time of our 
conversion. I have heard Christians say, " 0, 
that I could feel as I did when Jesus first spoke 
my sins forgiven." But those of us who have let 
Him cast every foe out of our hearts and make 
them clean, have a joy greater than we could con- 
ceive before, and it is abiding. Dark clouds may 
gather around us, but in our hearts all is .light. 
We even count it all joy when we fall into divers 



40 White Lilies 

temptations, knowing that the trying of our faith 
worketh patience, and when patience has had her 
perfect work, we shall be perfect and entire, 
and wanting nothing. If you have not this joy, 
Jesus wants to give it to you ; will you let Him ? 

" If our love were but more simple, 
We would take Him at His word ; 

And our lives would be all sunshine, 
In the sweetness of our Lord." 




From the King's Garden. 41 



THE LORD'S LILIES. 

" Blessed are the pure in heart." 

fE are told that the lilies of Palestine, men- 
tioned in the New Testament, are very beauti- 
fully colored, but in Old Testament times the 
word lily signified purity — the lily was used as an 
emblem of purity. Jesus is called the lily of the 
valley, because of the spotless puritj^ of His 
character, and He calls the pure in heart His 
lilies. We read in the Songs of Solomon, " As 
the lily among thorns, so is my love among the 
daughters." How blessed to know that He who 
has called us out of darkness into His marvelous 
light, is able and willing so to cleanse our hearts, 
that like the pure white lilies, we shall be without 
spot or stain. 

The Lord de'ights in His lilies — His pure 
ones. We read again, " He feedeth among the 
lilies: " and He has said "If any man love me, 



42 White Lilies 

he will keep my words, and my Father will Jove 
him, and we will come unto him, and take up our 
abode with him." What blessedness ! To have 
Him abide with us ; not tarry for a moment, not 
to catch sweet glimpses of His face, and then 
have it hidden from us by clouds of doubts and 
fears, but to have Him with us always, a present 
help in every time of need. And this joy may 
be ours, for it is promised to the pure in heart. 

We are told to "consider the lilies, how they 
grow, 7 ' and do any of God's children grow in grace 
like the pure in heart? When evil passions and 
desires, that, like weeds, have sprung up in our 
hearts, are not " kept down," but cast out, there 
is nothing to prevent the growth of the Christian 
graces. Yet some object to the doctrine of heart- 
purity, because, they say, they do not expect to 
reach a point in this life where they will not grow 
in grace; they believe they must advance or go 
back. My friend, purity and growth are not the 
same thing. Hosea, in speaking of "the Israel of 
God, says, " He shall grow as the lily ; " not grow 
to be like the lily, but he shall grow as the lily 



From the King's Garden. 43 

grows. There are lily buds, and lily flowers. A 
bud may be perfect and yet it will expand into a 
flower ; but who ever saw a perfect flower that 
came from an imperfect bud? Jesus expects us 
to grow in grace, but we cannot be made pure by 
growth ; that can only be done by the application 
of His precious blood, in answer to our prayer of 
faith, and then He leads us on, and we run in the 
way of His commandments, with hearts glad and 
free. 

We are not all called to preach the gospel. 
We have not all many talents to trade with for 
Jesus, nor the time and means we would like to 
use in His service. Some of us have been lain 
aside from active service for a long time, yet we 
can all be pure in heart, and holy in life, and there 
is a power in the daily life and example of one 
who walks with God, that the unconverted do not 
resist. They admire the Lord's lilies ; they covet 
the friendship of a Saviour who is able to make 
the heart so glad that the countenance is all aglow 
with holy light, though as Moses when he came 
down from the mount, wist not that his face 



44 White Lilies 

shone, sometimes the lowly follower of Jesus 
knows it not, but the unconverted take knowledge 
of it, and it is often the means of their salvation. 
0, I am so glad this same blessing of heart- 
purity is for all God's children. Let as yield 
up our hearts to be made pure and clean; let 
us trust Him to keep us clean, that we may 
glorify Him on the earth, and that, in a little 
while, when He shall come into His garden "to 
gather lilies/' we may be found without spot or 
wrinkle, or any such thing, and so be transplanted 
from this valley, to bloom in the Paradise of Grod. 




From the King's Garden. 45 



THE IMAGE OF THE HEAVENLY. 

" Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us." 

J HERE are Christians who have a wonderful 
wav of helping all with whom they have anv 
intercourse, nearer Jesus. No one who has any 
desire to be like Him, can be long in their society 
without having this desire strengthened and in- 
creased greatly. They live so near to God them- 
selves, and are so conscious of His glorious pres- 
ence at all times, that they seem to reflect the 
rays of the Sun of Righteousness, so that all 
about them feel the sweet influence, and are con- 
strained to cry with the Psalmist, " As the hart 
panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my 
soul after Thee, God;" "My heart and my 
flesh cry out for the living God." 

If unconverted people — those who have never 
given much serious thought to the subject of their 
soul's salvation — are brought into the society of 



46 White Lilies 

these blessed ones, they can but see the strange 
beauty of their lives, and wish that they too 
might know this Jesus, of whom they hear them 
speak; or if they are determined to resist the 
Spirit's strivings, they seek other society, being 
unable to endure the cravings of their own souls 
after the purity possessed by those who walk with 
God, while in their company. 

It was my privilege, in my early Christian ex- 
perience, to meet with some of these pure ones — 
mothers in Israel, and strong men and women of 
the Church of God — and I couldnot help seeing 
that they were different from many who named the 
name of Christ, and who, I knew, were trying to 
follow Him, and I wondered at the difference. 
Other Christians spoke of doubts and fears, but 
these were always happy. I knew they had 
trials and afflictions, jqI they seemed to live in 
the land of Beulah, where the sun always shines, 
their lives being one continual psalm of praise to 
God. Some told me it was because these were 
differently constituted from others, some being 
naturally inclined to look on the dark side, while 



From the King's Garden. 47 

others were naturally cheerful, but I knew our 
dear Father never meant one of His children to 
be so much happier than another. Then I thought 
it must be because they had been Christians so 
long, that by long service of the Master they had 
grown to be thus like Him, and I had such a 
longing to be like them, that I thought I would 
be willing to serve any number of years, and bear 
any burden, if only sometime I might gain their 
standpoint, and, like them, be free to follow 
Jesus, and help others to follow Him. 

Yet I knew others who had been members of 
the church just as long, and who, I had no reason 
to doubt, were Christians, and yet they lacked 
this beauty, this finishing touch of the Divine 
hand, and I could not solve the mystery. 

But the problem I could not work out for my- 
self, the great Teacher explained to me. Then I 
saw that this beauty of the Lord, and of those 
on whom He had bestowed it, was the beauty of 
HOLINESS, and 0, He showed me that I need not 
wait until I was older to receive it, that it could 
not be gained by long years of service, nor in 



48 White Lilies 

any other way, only as the free gift of Him who 
bought this great blessing for us, and that He is 
waiting and longing to give it to each one who 
desires it above all else ; that the youngest may 
come, the weakest may come, and whosoever will 
may come and be saved to the uttermost. 

Dear friend, you who are trying to serve Jesus, 
and yet know there is something lacking in your 
experience, you who are sometimes on the moun- 
tain-top, arid sometimes down in the valley, dis- 
couraged, and almost ready to give up striving 
for the mastery, Jesus doesn't want you to live so 
any longer. He wants to put His loving arm 
about you, and draw you so close to Himself that 
you will shine in the light of God, and all the 
while reflect the image of the Heavenly, and He 
wants to do it now. For your own sake, for the 
sake of the Church whose great need seems to be 
more of those who enjoy this full salvation, for 
the sake of the dear Saviour whom you love far 
better than you love your life, though you often 
grieve Him, I entreat you to pray ,k let the beaut v 
of the Lord our God be upon us," 



From the King's Garden. 49 



THE LOKD'S EVERLASTINGS. 

" From everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God." 

|f BEGAN searching my Bible one day for the 
|l everlastings. First I found, " I have loved 
thee with an everlasting love;" then, u Israel 
shall be saved in the Lord, with one everlasting 
salvation;" and then, "The ransomed of the 
Lord shall return and come to Zion, with songs 
and everlasting joy upon their heads." 

As I paused a moment to consider these pre- 
cious promises from the Lord's treasury, I said to 
myself, Why, I have found these in just the 
right order ! Everlasting love, everlasting salva- 
tion, everlasting joy. Because our Jesus loves 
us with an everlasting love, He has given us His 
everlasting salvation, and this fills our souls with 
an everlasting joy, that no man can take from us. 
Everlasting love — the same yesterday, to-day 
and for ever. And then the depth of this love ! 
5 



50 White LiCjes 

who can fathom it ? Why, it brought oar Sav- 
iour from His own glorious heaven to die on 
Calvary. Even, while we were yet sinners, Christ 
died for us ! It has watched over us from our 
. earliest infancy, has given us our pleasant homes, 
our loving friends, and all the comforts of life we 
enjoy. Even though we have rebelled against 
our kind heavenly Father, He has remembered 
us in mercy, for though He hates the sin, He still 
loves the sinner. In His great love for us, He 
condescends to notice our faintest aspiration after 
holiness and God, and to help in our least en- 
deavor to get nearer the great Source of love; 
but when we give ourselves unreservedly to Him, 
and love Him with all our hearts, then does He 
" rest in His love," and joy over us "with sing- 
ing. 17 And we need not fear that He will ever 
love us less, for His love is not only infinite, but 
everlasting. 

Everlasting salvation — a salvation that saves 
every moment. Could any thing but everlasting 
love have devised such a salvation as this? No 
more need of straying into forbidden paths, for 



From the King's Garden. 51 

everlasting love has prepared a highway, and 
"the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err 
therein.' 7 "The unclean shall not pass over it," 
but everlasting love has opened a fountain for 
sin and uncleanness at the entrance of the high- 
way where all are invited to wash and be clean. 
And because we, in our weakness and ignorance, 
might stray from the highway after entering it, 
this same love has provided a Guide — one who 
has passed over the way before us, and the print 
of whose blessed footsteps now marks the path. 
He is mighty to save. We hear His gentle voice- 
saying: " This is the way, walk ye in it." His 
strong, loving arm encircles and supports us. 

" We lean on Him, entranced 
In calm and perfect rest," 

and are saved — saved to the uttermost — saved 
every moment with His everlasting salvation, and 
we know it. 

So our souls are filled with everlasting joy, the 
joy of conscious salvation, everlasting because it 
must endure while we are fully saved. I know 



52 White Lilies 

that the dear ones who travel the King's highway 
are often in heaviness through manifold tempta- 
tions; I know that some are led from the cleans- 
ing fountain right into the fiery furnace — I have 
known those whose hearts were almost crushed 
with sorrow, and yet they could say with Paul, 
"sorrowful, yet always rejoicing." I am glad 
that we are told to rejoice in the Lord alway, for 
although every other source of joy may fail us, 
this cannot, for it is everlasting. 

From everlasting to everlasting, He is God. 
His love unchangeable, His salvation ever ours, 
and the cup of joy He presses to our lips, ever 
full and overflowing. Hallelujah, what a Saviour ! 

" Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from ever- 
lasting to everlasting, and let all the people say, 
Amen. Praise ye the Lord." 




From the King's Garden. 53 



THE CHILDREN'S SAVIOUR 

" Of such is the kingdom of heaven." 

JlESUS is a powerful Friend; 
oil) Little children, love Him now; 
. At His feet in reverence bend, 
Meekly in His presence bow. 
He is able to redeem, 

Strong to save, and true, and willing, 
He will make your hearts quite clean, 
All His promises fulfilling. 

Jesus is a loving Friend ; 

Listen, children ! hear Him pleading: 
" Come, your joys will have no end, 

In my pleasant pastures feeding; 
I will take you in my arms, 

Fold you to my bosom tender, 
Keep you safe from sin and harm, 

Be your Shepherd and Defender." 



54 White Lilies 

Jesus is the children's Friend, 

Once on earth, and now in heaven; 
" Suffer them to come," He said, 

" I, for them my life have given." 
Children, He has died for you! 

And your love so glad will make Him; 
Love Him then, this Friend so true; 

Never, never more forsake Him. 

All who would* the Saviour own, 

Must possess a child-like spirit, 
Humble, teachable, and pure, 

Trusting only in His merit. 
On such heads His loving hands, 

Evermore shall rest in blessing; 
Heaven above their heritage, 

All its wealth of bliss possessing. 




From the King's Garden. 55 



WHO WILL SAVE HIM? 

" Neither is there salvation in any other." 

fHO will save him? Save him from what? 
Surely he is in no danger from King Alco- 
hol. He is only a baby ; scarce six summers have 
passed over his curly head ! Then, his father and 
mother are temperance people, though not quite 
so fanatical as some who u set themselves up " for 
reformers. Mamma gives him a little cider when 
she makes mince pies, and papa, thinks a little 
home-made wine won't hurt him : they never think 
he may learn to love it, and become a drunkard. 
Then he spends his pennies for wine-drops and 
sugar brandy-bottles at the confectioner's around 
the corner; but he is a church -member, and, of 
course, would not sell the child any thing hurtful. 
0, is there no one to lift the warning voice — no 
one to take away the little foxes before they spoil 
the tender vine? Who will save him ? 



56 White Lilies 

Who will save him? He is a school-boy- now. 
Quick and intelligent, he is always at the head 
of his classes ; merry and obliging, the favorite of 
all his companions. That same confectioner still 
keeps the store around the corner, and he stops 
on his way to school and buys the same kind of 
cakes and candy, only he buys them by the pound 
now. Sometimes he takes a glass of wine, when 
visiting at the homes of some of his companions. 
He tells himself that it isn't because he likes it, 
but because he dislikes to be singular. He 
doesn't say any thing to his mother about it, be- 
cause she might worry ; mothers are so easily 
worried, you know. He accompanied her the 
other afternoon, to a meeting held by the ladies 
of the Temperance Union, and as he heard their 
earnest appeals, especially to the young, he was 
almost persuaded never to touch the wine again. 
But he heard his mother say, at the supper- 
table, that she did not see how any woman 
could do so unlady-like a thing as to speak in 
such a company, composed largely of boys and 
men, some of them pretty rough looking, too ; so 



From the King's Garden. 57 

he thought the ladies' remarks not worth his 
notice. 

A temperance society was started in the Sab- 
bath school of which he is a member. Most of the 
boys in his class joined it; he thought of joining, 
but heard his father say he thought any man 
ought to have respect enough for himself to keep 
from drinking, and that signing the pledge was 
all nonsense, so he did not give in his name. 
Thus he is borne along by the tide of circum- 
stances, and no one dreams of his danger. Who 
will save him ? 

Who will save him ? He has i>Town to be a 

<_^ 

young man ; his last year in college is almost 
ended. He is chosen to be the valedictorian of 
his class, and he works early and late, for he 
intends his friends shall be proud of him. Some- 
times in the early part of his college course, when 
his head ached, and he found it hard to concen- 
trate his thoughts, he used to take a glass of 
wine; then his brain seemed to become clear and 
active, and he could proceed with his studies. 
Wine doesn't geem to have much effect on him 



58 White Lilies 

now, so he takes something stronger. His head 
aches worse than ever the next morning; he can- 
not see why it should, hut concludes it is because 
he worked so hard the night before, and resolves 
to be a little more prudent in future. Thus he 
goes on, not realizing that he is a slave to his ap- 
petite, but thinking that he can lay aside his 
habit of drinking whenever he pleases to do so. 
Who will save him? 

Who will save him ? Some years have passed 
since we saw him last, and he has now a home 
and family of his own. That lovely cottage, 
yonder, is his home ; that beautiful, though sad- 
looking woman at the door, is his wife, and the 
little child among the flowers in the garden, his 
idolized daughter. Some people wonder why 
his wife always looks so sad, when she seems to 
possess all that heart could desire, but those who 
know them best say it is because the husband 
drinks. When she first learned this fact, her 
grief knew no bounds, and she begged him, for 
her sake, to give it up. Anxious to please her 
in every thing, he promised to do so. Again and 



Prom the King's Garden. 59 

again he tried — tried in his own strength, and of 
course failed. Then, for the first time, he knew 
how King Alcohol had enslaved him. Since that 
he has become desperate, and it is now no un- 
common thing for him to become intoxicated. 
He doesn't patronize the low drinking saloons, 
however ; not he. He buys his liquor at the large 
hotels with marble counters, where the cut glass 
sparkles in the gaslight, and is called by society 
a gentleman. But the liquor is quite as surely 
poison, and he is drifting swiftly and surely 
toward destruction. Who will save him ? 

Who will save him ? There he lies on the 
steps of that low grog-shop ; any place where 
liquor is sold is good enough for him now ! His 
reputation is gone, his house and furniture sold, 
and his money spent to satisfy his appetite, and 
vet it is unsatisfied. His father and mother have 
gone clown in sorrow to their graves. His wife 
has found refuge in her father's house, and there 
she and her little daughter mourn for him of 
whom they were once so proud, for he seems 
but a step from the grave — the horrible grave of 



60 White Lilies 

the drunkard. Ob, is it possible to save him 
now ? He is sober this morning, for his money 
is gone ; and as he sits thinking of his miserable 
condition, and contrasts it with what he might 
have been, he covers his face with his hands, and 
tears trickle through his fingers. A Christian 
lady is passing, and noticing his condition, she 
stops to speak a kindly word, and invite him into 
a temperance meeting near by, to which she is 
hastening. He follows her in, he hardly knows 
why, only he has nowhere else to go. There they 
entreated him to give up his evil habits and lead 
a better life; but he tells them it is too late, his 
appetite is his master. Then they point him to 
Jesus, the mighty to save. Can He save him ? 
He remembers that long ago, his Sunday-school 
teacher used to tell him that Jesus could save to 
the uttermost. Her words come back to him 
now with a pleasant sound. He scarcely heeded 
them when they were spoken ; he thought then 
he needed no salvation ; afterward, when he 
grew older, he thought he could save himself, but 
he knows better now. Will Jesus think the 



From the King's GtArdejst. 6l 

poor drunkard worth saving ? " Oh, yes ! " they 
tell him, " He died for all." It is almost too 
good to be true, and yet he begins to believe it. 
Now his confidence grows stronger, and he reaches 
out the hand of faith, and takes the offered salva- 
tion. Speed away, ye angel messengers, and 
sound the story through the bright courts above^ 
and let heaven and earth rejoice together, for 
King Jesus has conquered, and he is saved at last I 




62 White Lilies 



IN THE SUNSHINE. 

" They shall walk, O, Lord, in the light of Thy coun- 
tenance." 

FEIEND related to me the following little 
incident, which occurred at a floral exhibition 
in one of our large cities. Among the many 
rare and beautiful plants placed on exhibition 
there, was one that attracted the attention of all 
who passed by. It was only a common geran- 
ium, and yet it was so symmetrical in form, and 
so beautiful in foliage and flower, that everyone 
paused to admire it, and wondered how it had 
been trained to such rare beauty. 

When the time arrived for the distribution of 
the prizes, the judge announced that the beautiful 
geranium had taken the first prize, and called for 
its owner. A pale, slender little girl, in a neat 
but faded dress, came forward and said, "Please, 



From the King's Garden. 63 

sir, that's mine, 7 ' in a low, sweet voice — so low 
that it failed to attract the attention of the judge, 
who again called the name of the owner of the 
plant. Again the little one answered, "Please, 
sir, that's mine." This time the judge heard her, 
but at first would hardly believe the plant was 
really hers. 

Having satisfied himself that such was the case, 
he began questioning her about it. " How long 
have you owned this lovely plant, my little 
friend?" he asked. "Ever since it was a tiny 
slip," answered the little maiden. " And where 
do you live ? " was the next question. The child 
named a street in the most wretched part of the 
city — a miserable alley, where the tenement- 
houses on each side were so high that never a ray 
of sunlight entered, and where not so much as a 
blade of grass ever grew. 

On hearing her answers, the judge was still 
more astonished, and exclaimed : " Is \l possible 
that this lovely plant grew in such a place ? How 
did you train it ? " " Please, sir," she answered, 
11 1 only kept it in the sunshine," " But I didn't 



64 White Lilies 

know the sun ever shone in your street." " It 
doesn't shine in the street, nor in the window of 
our room, but it does shine upon the roof of the 
house. My Sabbath school teacher gave me this 
plant when it was a tiny slip, and I loved it for 
her sake. I knew it couldn't grow without sun- 
shine, so every morning I carried it up to the roof 
of the house, and kept it there all day. Mamma 
goes away to work in the morning and doesn't 
get back till night; so, as 1 was tired of staying 
alone in our room all day, I stayed on the roof 
with my plant, and when the sun moved, I moved 
the plant, too, and so I kept it all the time in the 
sunshine." 

And I thought as my friend was telling me the 
story, that the little plant was like the Christian. 
If we would live the beautiful, holy lives our 
heavenly Father designs us to live, we must get 
above the darkness of sin, where He can smile 
upon us all the time. His smile is our sunshine, 
and we may live in it, for no cloud of temptation 
or sorrow is able to hide the Sun of Righteousness 
from the fully trusting soul 



From the King's Garden. 65 

We may be the weakest, the most unworthy, 
the least of all God's children, and y et, if we will 
let Jesus lift us up into the sunshine, it will make 
us beautiful. Thank God, there is a place where 
the sun always shines, and the redeemed of the 
Lord walk there, in the light of His countenance, 
and rejoice all the day long. 

0, that I could picture to all the weary seekers 
after rest, the glories of this Beulah land ! 0, 
for words to describe the perfect rest found 
here ! No condemnation, no fears, no doubts, for 
trusting is as easy as breathing, but I can only 
say, Jesus is the w 7 ay, come up and share the 
goodly heritage, and you shall know for yourself, 
the full, rich meaning of that blessed word 

SATISFIED. 



66 White Lilies 



" WE WOULD SEE JESUS." 

ATTENDED a union Methodist love-feast at 
one of the Churches of our city, and all 
through the service the words, u We would see 
Jesus," kept running through my mind, and even 
after I went home, and had retired for the night, 
I could not sleep for thinking of them, so I began 
putting my thoughts in rhyme. At last I fell 
asleep, and had a dream. I never had a brother, 
but in my dream T thought I had — an elder 
brother, who had long been absent from home, 
but was now coming back. I could not remem- 
ber of having seen him. but everyone was telling 
me how kind, and gentle, and noble, he was. I 
thought he had distinguished himself in battle, 
and saved the lives of many, though he, himself, 
was wounded. I was almost afraid to meet one 
so grand. At last I heard a stir in the crowd 



From the King's Garden. 67 

that had gathered about our door to catch a 
glimpse of him, and some one said, " He is com- 
ing." Then I forgot all my fears, and rushed 
forward to meet him, and as I looked up in his 
loving face, and he clasped me in his arms, I 
tried to say " My brother," but the words faltered 
on my lips, and I said " My Lord ! " 

We would see Jesus, for our ears have heard 
Sweet stories of His loveliness and grace; 

Words that deep longings in our souls have stirred, 
To look upon the beauty of His face. 

We would see Jesus, for our hearts have felt 
The kindlings of His love — a love so deep ; 

It brought Him from the heaven where He dwelt, 
To earth, to rescue us, His wandering sheep. 

We would see Jesus; O, we wonder not 
That Moses, after he had talked with God, 

Should ask that his might be the happy lot 
To gaze upon the glory of his Lord. 

We would see Jesus, In the heavenly land 
The great archangels, in His presence now, 

Cover their faces with their wings and stand, 
Before His throne, and reverently bow. 



68 White Lilies 

We would see Jesus. Hark ! I hear a voice 
From God's own Word — " The pure in heart are blest, 

They shall behold Him, in His love rejoice, 
Their weary heads upon His bosom rest/' 

We would see Jesus; Father, make us pure, 

O, wash us in the all-atoning blood, 
O, work within our souls a perfect cure, 

And make us altogether like our Lord. 

We would see Jesus; yes, faith's vision bright 
Sees Jesus now, and gazing, we shall be 

From glory changed to glory at the sight, 
And dwell with Him through all eternity. 




From the King's Garden. 69 



HOW TO BE STRONG. 

" They that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion, which 
cannot be removed, but abideth forever." 

fHAT a wonderful promise of strength ! "They 
shall be as Mount Zion which cannot be re- 
moved." And how simple the condition — only 
trusting Jesus ? 

Of course, this trust implies a full consecration. 
There can be no such thing as perfect trust unless 
the consecration is complete. I have heard people 
wish they could trust God for every thing, but 
someway they could not do it : and no wonder - — 
they had not placed their all in His keeping. 
How could they trust Him to keep that which 
they were withholding from Him? 

But having placed our all on the altar our- 
selves, with all that we have and are — our talents, 
£tnd time, and reputation: having even given 



70 White Lilies 

Him our unbelief, and our weakness — we have a 
right to trust Him. 

Did you ever stop to think that Jesus wants us 
to consecrate our weakness to Him? Well, He 
does. What for ? As a means for displaying 
His mighty power. Is it not written, " My 
strength is made perfect in weakness? ,7 

This wonderful, yet simple trust — incompre- 
hensible to those who are still clinging to some 
fondly-cherished idol, but well known and under- 
stood by all who are the Lord's entirely — so 
unites us to Him that His strength becomes ours. 
I have heard a good brother, who is noted for the 
stability of his character, say in the prayer-meet- 
ing, that his feet were so firmW planted on the 
Rock that he seemed to have become a part of it. 

I have a message to-day for the weak ones — 
those who tell us they are trying to serve God in 
their poor, weak way, but crosses are heavy, and 
they shrink from the performance of many duties 
because they feel their weakness: those who are 
too timid to speak to an unconverted friend, and 
invite him to come to Jesus, or to use their voice 



From the King's Garden. 71 

in prayer or testimony in the prayer circle, or to 
do many things they feel it their duty to do, but 
think they are not able — Jesus knows all about 
your weakness, and sends you a message. You 
will find it written in His own Holy Word, and 
these are the words : "Let him take hold of My 
strength. 7 ' Why, the strength of Jesus is om- 
nipotent. Could you ask any thing more? 
Never mind your weakness, just come close to 
Him and trust Him with all your heart : just take 
hold of His strength, and you are more than a 
match for all Your foes. 

Does the enemy come in like a flood? Trust 
in the Lord ; His Spirit shall lift up a standard 
against him. Do temptations assail you on every 
hand? Trust in the Lord : the shield of faith 
shall quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. 
Do trials and afflictions come to you ? God is a 
strong refuge, only trust Him, and He will hide 
you in the cleft of the Rock, and cover you with 
His hand till these calamities are overpast. Per- 
haps He sends you on some errand for Him, and 
you find some great mountain of difficulty right 



72 White Lilies 

in the way. Never mind ; trust in the Lord : He 
can remove it, if necessary ; if not, just let Him 
hold your right hand, and go forward. Keep 
looking up into His loving face, keep trusting, and 
von shall pass safely over, and just beyond you 
will find the valley of blessing. 

Then let us press boldly forward with victory 
inscribed on our banners, for He hath compassed 
us about with son°'s of deliverance. Let us trust 

o 

in Him at all times and we shall be able to say, 
with one of old, "Blessed be God, who always 
causeth us to triumph." 

" Now unto Him who is able to keep you from 
falling, and to present you faultless before the 
presence of His glory with exceeding joy ; 

u To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory 
and majesty, dominion and power, both now and 
ever. Amen." 




From the King's Garden. 73 



DON'T TEY TO LOWER THE STANDARD. 

"And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse which 
shall stand for an ensign of the people." 

TION'T try to lower the standard ! Because, m 
Jj the first place, you cannot do it. (rod Him- 
self hath set it up ; He guards it with jealous care, 
and no puny arm of flesh can lower it in the least. 
It is the life of our blessed Saviour, our God- 
given example, and the Bible is full of invitations 
and exhortations to have our lives conformed to 
it We have the exhortation, " Let this mind be 
in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." St, John 
says: " He that, saith he abideth in Him, ought 
himself also so to walk even as He walked ; " and 
the Lord Himself gave us the command, "Be ye 
therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in 
heaven is perfect ; " and He never commands us 
to do impossible things. His commandments are 
7 



74 White Lilies 

not grievous, but each one is the same as a prom- 
ise, for He knows, better than we do, how weak 
we are, and how utterly impossible it is for us to 
do any good thing of ourselves, therefore His com- 
" manding us to do certain things is the same as 
promising us grace to do them. God has not 
called us to uncleanness, but unto holiness. This 
is His standard, and all attempts to lower it are 
as useless as to try to move the everlasting hills 
with our feeble, human strength. 

And because, in the second place, your own 
soul will never be satisfied with any thing less than 
all the fullness of God. You may persuade your- 
self that you cannot attain to the blessing of heart 
purity in this life, and yet, in spite of your argu- 
ments, if you are an earnest Christian, your soul 
will cry out for it. You may set up a standard 
of your own, and say to yourself, Thus far thou 
mayest go and no farther, and yet your immortal 
nature, whose desires cannot be confined by any 
limits you may prescribe for it, will go out in 
earnest longings for that which God desires to 
impart to } t ou — His own holiness. 



From the King's Garden. 75 

And then, again, unconverted people expect 
Christians to be Christ-like. They understand 
that this is the standard. T heard one say, not 
long since, when asked if he believed in holiness, 
u Certainly I do ; if God is able to save at all, He 
must be able to save to the uttermost." 0, 1 blush 
with shame when I think that it is not the uncon- 
verted, but those who profess to be the friends of 
Jesus, who speak against holiness, and limit His 
power to save. 

Dear brothers and sisters, let me beseech you 
not to try to lower the standard — not to trifle 
with this subject of holiness. If you have not 
attained to it, do not therefore say it is not attain- 
able, for God says it is ; but seek it with all your 
hearts, and you will obtain it. " If any man will 
do His will, he shall know of the doctrine." If 
vou do not understand iust what is meant bv 

o J *J 

the terms " holiness, 7 ' and : ' perfect love," do not 
speak against the doctrine and experience, but 
study your Bible, seeking the enlightening in- 
fluence of the Holy Spirit, and earnestly desiring 
to know the truth, and it will be revealed to you. 



76 White Lilies 

Especially let me entreat those who are pastors 
and leaders of the people, not to try to lower the 
standard. There are souls in your Church who are 
keeping up an endless strife with the foes in their 
own hearts, and are just longing to know if there 
is not some way of deliverance from them. Some 
of them have heard of this full salvation, and 
they listen eagerly to hear what their pastor will 
say about it, and are grieved and disappointed 
when Sabbath after Sabbath passes and he says 
nothing about it, or what is worse, speaks slight- 
ingly of this wonderful experience. 0, let me 
beg earnestly that you will disappoint them no 
longer, but point out the way to them, and urge 
them to enter it, for if they do they will be a 
power for good in your Church that will be 
astonishing, both to you. and themselves. 

A certain general, in time of battle, ordered a 
retreat. All the soldiers under his command 
obeyed, with the exception of the color-bearer, 
who firmly stood his ground. Seeing this, the 
general called to him, "Bring the standard back 
to the ranks/ 7 But the standard-bearer never 



From the King's Garden. 77 

moved. Again the general shouted, "Bring the 
standard back to the ranks." But his words 
were unheeded, though the distance between the 
bold soldier and his comrades was increasing, and 
the enemy was almost upon him. At length the 
general, expecting every moment to see the stand- 
ard fall from his hands, shouted at the top of his 
voice, " / say bring the standard back to the 
ranks." Then out from the midst of the noise and 
smoke of battle, rang the clear voice of the noble 
standard-bearer, "General, /say bring the ranks 
up xo the standard ! " And with a sudden im- 
pulse of courage, the general rallied his retreat- 
ing forces, and led them on to victory. 

Then don't try to lower the standard, but rather 
lead the hosts of Israel up to it, and you will lead 
them to certain victory, and those unconverted 
ones you are so anxious to induce to join our 
ranks, will do so, for you know the Psalmist said, 
" Create in me a clean heart, God, and renew a 
right spirit within me. Then will I teach trans- 
gressors Thy ways, and sinners shall be converted 
unto Thee." 



78 White Lilies 



MY DREAM. 
"Hear, I pray you, this dream which 1 have dreamed." 

it THOUGHT that my feet had been placed in 

cvBI the narrow way that leads to the New Jeru- 

j 

sal em, and I had been bidden to go straight for- 
ward, turning neither to the right hand nor to the 
left, and on no account taking a backward step, 
or even looking behind me. 

The way seemed rather lonely, and yet it was 
very pleasant, for I walked amid beautiful flow- 
ers and singing birds: the sky above me was 
cloudless, and my way seemed all sunshine, and 
music, and joy. 

But, after a little, there was a change ; the sun- 
shine was all gone ; I seemed to be walking amid 
shadows, ^ind had agloom}^, chilly, uncomfortable 
feeling. I looked about to ascertain the cause, 
and saw at a little distance, a great brick wal] 



From the King's Garden. 79 

crossing my path, and stretching out on either 
side as far as eye could reach. 

The wall was very high, shutting out from my 
riew all that was beyond it, besides casting its 
shadow back over the path, thus robbing me of 
all my sunshine. I began wondering how I ever 
should get past it. I knew it would be impossi- 
ble to climb over it. At first I thought I would 
try and go around it : but then I remembered 
that I had been told to turn neither to the right 
hand nor to the left. I am glad to be able to say 
I hnd no thought of turning: back. I could not 
stand still: and in my great perplexity I asked 
mvself the question. What can I do? 

At last I thought I would follow the path right 
up to the wall, and then if I could go no farther, 
I should have the satisfaction of knowing I had 
done ^e best I could. I walked along with a very 
hopeless feeling in my heart, until I had nearly 
reached the wall, when I saw that just where the 
path led up to it, was a door. 

I began wondering if I should be able to open 
it : but when I came up to it, it opened of its 



80 White Lilies 

own accord. I passed through, out in the bright, 
beautiful sunshine again, and with a glad heart, 
continued my journey. 

But very soon I found myself among shadows 
again, and saw that another wall, similar to the 
first, crossed my path. I was not troubled, how- 
ever, as I had been before, because I thought I 
should find a way through, and so I did. 

This experience was repeated a number of 
times. I would walk a short distance in the sun- 
shine, then a long way amid gloomy shadows, 
then out into the sunshine again, until at length, 
from something I saw in the path, I knew I had 
passed over that part of the way before, and all 
at once, the thought came to me that I was just 
going over the same ground, again and again, 
when I had all th« while thought I was making 
progress toward my journey's end. 

01: course I was very much discouraged. I 
said to myself, "I shall never reach heaven this 
way ; I may just as well sit down, and not make 
the attempt ; " yet I remembered that I had been 
told to go straight forward, and, with a kind of 



From the King's Garden. 81 

desperation, I did so. Another brick wall was 
just before me; listlessly I pushed open the gate 
(0, what would I not have lost had I not done so), 
when just outside I saw a tall angel standing. 

Mv need of counsel was so great that it over- 
came the great feeling of awe I had in his pres- 
ence, and I said to him, u Sir, will you please 
show me the short road to heaven?" lie an- 
swered me not a word, only took me by the hand 
and lifted me up, up, above all the brick walls, 
and shadows, and gloom, and I knew they would 
never trouble me again. 

Then he said to me, u You are now in the 
King's highway ; do you want a proof of it? " I 
thought the joy and rest of my own soul proof 
enough, but he led me out a little way, and then 
said: "Now, if by looking in the direction I 
shall indicate, you can see the Celestial City, that 
will be your proof.' 7 Eagerly I strained my eyes 
to look for it in the distance ; but there it lay, in 
all its beauty, just before me ; it seemed I would 
have to take but a few steps to reach it. 

I raised my eyes to the angel's face, and said ; 



82 White Lilies 

" Shall T enter in ? " I can never forget the rare 
beauty of bis smile as lie said, U I cannot hinder 
yoa, bat if you are willing to stay, I know a 
place where you can do the King good service." 
0, that was just what I wanted — to do the King 
good service, the dear, kind King, who had cast 
up this glorious highway, and given me the 
privilege of walking in it ; so I asked mv angel 
friend to show me the place. 

Then he led me back to the place where I had 
first seen him, and said: "If you would serve 
the King, stand here, and whenever one comes 
this way, weary and perplexed as you were, lead 
them unto this highway, as I did you." 

While he stood talking with me, I saw a man 
approaching in great haste. When he came near 
enough, he spoke to us, asking to be directed to 
the Celestial City. To my great surprise, the 
angel only waved his hand in the direction of the 
path that led between the brick walls, and said : 
"Friend, you will have to go in that way." 

The man thanked him and passed on, but my 
soul was filled with indignation, and I said : 



From the King's Garden. 



88 



"How could y ou send him around in that path, 
when you know that perfect soul-rest is found 
onlv in the King's highway ? " The angel smiled 
and answered : ■" That man could not walk in the 
highway. Your Book (I noticed he did not say 
our Book) says : ' The unclean shall not pass over 
it." ' Then it flashed upon me just as plainly as 
if I could have read the man's heart, that there 
was pride in it, and unbelief and other evils that 
he was not quite willing to give up, and therefore 
he could not walk in the highway. I was about to 
ask the angel if I must judge between people as 
he did. when he suddenly vanished, and I awoke. 




84 White Lilies 



BEST. 

" The Lord shall give thee rest from the hard bondage." 

OUL-REST comes only from a full surrender 
of our wills to God's will. A soul at variance 
with God, even in the slightest degree, cannot be 
at rest. Sin and unrest always go hand in hand, 
but when our wills bend to God's will, in sweet 
submission, the floods of His salvation roll over 
the soul, sweeping away all sin, and unrest, and 
disquiet, leaving instead, a great calm — a perfect 
soul-rest, never to be broken while we remain in 
harmony with God. 

Yet the many w r ho go to and fro through the 
earth, seek i no- rest and finding; none, do not un- 
derstand this. Jesus says to them, "Come unto 
Me, and I will give you rest, 11 "In returning and 
rest shall ye be saved, in quietness and in confi- 
dence shall be your strength,' 1 but they say, " No, 



From the King's Garden. 85 

life is a warfare, arid we must struggle, and wrestle, 
and fight against foes without and within." They 
do not know that there is such a thing as rest in 
the midst of conflict. They never can know it, 
until, with wills completely surrendered to God, 
and hearts washed in the blood of the Lamb, their 
struggle with self is ended, and Jesus gives them 
His perfect peace. 

O brother, sister, it is not your outward circum- 
stances and surroundings, and the many tempta- 
tions to which yoa are exposed, that rob you of 
your soul-rest, nor even your own peculiar dis- 
position, as you are sometimes inclined to think, 
but inbred sin — sin in } r our own soul. And 
Jesus died to redeem you from this ; it is the 
Father's good pleasure to deliver yoa. O, when 
will you yield your will to His, and enter into 
His rest? 

Those who are entirely the Lord's, have rest in 
the midst of conflict, because they know that 
every battle will result in victory. God has said 
" I know the thoughts that I think toward you, 
thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an 
8 



86 White Lilies 

expected end." Their expected end is victory, and, 
thank God, they have it every time. 

But the others are not quite so sure about it. 
Their minds are full of anxiety on the subject. 
A thousand " ifs " are in their way. So much of 
the ordering of the battle depends on them, they 
have so much of the fighting to do themselves : 
if they act well their parts, all will be well ; but 
what if they should fail? God's invincibles are 
not troubled by any of these thing's. No clouds 
of doubts and fears hide their Leader from their 
eyes ; they have only to obey His orders im- 
plicitly, and this they are free to do, for self is 
not in their way. When He says "go forward," 
they advance, and He commands their foes to let 
them pass unharmed. If He says "stand still," 
they hold their peace, while He fights their battle 
for them, and their eyes behold His salvation. It 
is not theirs to bring about results, but only to 
obey, and He always causeth them to triumph. 

Those who are wholly given to God, have rest 
in working for Him. So many people worry in 
God's work. Because the King's business requires 



From the King's Garpen. 87 

haste, and they are full of zeal for Him, they act 
as if they wanted to do all Tlis work at once. 
They get tired of His patient way of working, 
and trv to hurry matters a little. Thev sow the 
seed carefully and prayerfully, and then want to 
see results right away : and if they do not, they 
become discouraged and almost ready to say, I 
have toiled in vain. 

Those who are entirely the Lord's are also full 
of zeal in His cause: how can they help it when 
souls for whom Christ died are going down to 
endless death ? The heart of their Saviour is 
yearning over these lost ones, and their hearts, 
being in sympathy with His, must share in the 
feeling. They are eager to work for their salva- 
tion, anywhere, or in any way, as His Spirit may 
direct, and this is all they can do. They do not 
plan work for themselves, but put all their pow T ers 
under the Divine control, and with hearts at rest, 
work on, contentedly and patiently. If they see 
the fruit of their labor (and thank God this is 
often the case) they give God the glory: but if 
not, they still labor on, knowing that God will 



88 White Lilies 

give the increase, even though another reaps 
what they have sown. 

Those whose wills have bowed to God's will 
have rest in the midst of trial and suffering, be- 
cause all these things come to them through their 
Father's will. Whatever the immediate cause of 
their afflictions may be, He lets them come to 
them. 

Sorrow and pain could not touch them with- 
out His permission, and they willingly bear 
what He permits, for they love His will even 
better than they love freedom from suffering. 
Though, like Job, they may not understand 
God's plans for them, they know they can work 
them out without understanding them, just by 
submitting. This is their part, and they are wise 
enough to keep their hands from touching what 
is not their part. 

Those who are entirely the Lord's have rest- 
even in waiting, perhaps the hardest place for pne 
full of holy ambition to rest. They love the 
Lord's wcrk ; they had hoped to do great things 
for Him ; they Jong to be in the thickest of the 



From the King's Garden. 89 

battle ; but He has placed His hand on them, and 
said : " Stand here and wait." 

They see multitudes of professing Christians 
who might work if they chose, yet seem to have 
no desire to do so. They see other of God's 
faithful workmen perform successfully the work 
they had hoped to do — they do not cease to long 
for it, but God's will is dearer to them than even 
His work, and so they rest. Some may misjudge 
them, and think their calmness the result of in- 
difference, but they know it comes from the soul- 
rest that Jesus gives. And as they wait quietly 
in the place their Father has appointed them, 
they draw cups of cool, refreshing water from the 
wells of salvation for the weary ones who pass by, 
and rejoice that even they can do something. 

0, that my words might reach each one who is 
wearily seeking rest outside the will of God, that 
I might say to them, " Arise, depart, for this is 
not your rest." Yield your will to God's will, 
give yourself up entirely to His control, for here, 
and here only, you will find rest to your soul. 



90 White Lilies 



MUST AND MAY. 

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath 
made me free from the law of sin and death." 



'II HEARD the voice of Jesus say, 

vll " My child, you must My words obey, 

My true disciple be; 
Must choose the right, all evil shun, 
Must live for me, and Me alone, 

For I have died for thee." 

I thought His words were just and right- 
Not hard nor grievous in my sight 

Were His commands that day; 
Yet when I strove to do His will, 
Evil was present with me still, 

Oft leading me astray. 

Then to my Lord I made complaint — 
" I cannot, Lord, I am so faint; 

My weakness is so great, 
That often when I would do right, 
And live well-pleasing in Thy sight, 

I do the wrong I hate." 



Prom the King's Garden. 91 

How graciously He answered me ! 
" The secret of the Lord shall be 

With those who fear My name ; 
Child, bring your weakness all to Me, 
In it My strength shall perfect be, 

If I in thee may reign," 

So now I hear my dear Lord say, 

No longer must, but " Child, you may," 

And my glad spirit, free, 
Delights His blessed will to do; 
Willing I am and able too, 

Through Christ which strenstheneth me. 







92 White Lilies 



PRAISE HIM. 

" Whosoever offereth praise glorifieth Me,'' 

fTIAT an easy way to glorify God ! Here is a 
chance for those who have been wishing they 
could do something to bring glorv to His name. 
The way is now open for all, for we have each 
abundant reason to praise Him. Begin with the 
first blessing He gives you (remembering that 
every good and every perfect gift cometh from 
above), and just praise Him for each one you re- 
ceive, and you will soon become lost in wonder, 
love and praise, with no opportunity left you for 
murmuring and despondency. 

Praise Him for the ordinary — what we call 
the common — blessings of life ; the rain and 
the sunshine, the fields of grain white for the har- 
vest, the luscious fruit, the beautiful flowers. 
Praise Him for home comforts and loving friends ; 



From the King's Garden. 93 

if He remembers to give them to us, should not 
we remember to return Him thanks ? We are so 
used to some of our blessings, that we are in 
danger of forgetting to praise the Giver for them. 
What if lie should forget to give them to us ? 

Praise Him for His kindness in little things. 
Nothing that can concern or interest you is small 
enough to escape His notice. Even the hairs of 
your head are all numbered. The little tempta- 
tions and vexations that try you so every day arc 
all noticed by his watchful eye. You ask Him 
for grace to overcome them ; do you remember 
to praise Him for giving you the victory over 
them ? 

Praise Him for the joys of your life : He gives 
you every one of them. Pleasures are increased 
a thousand fold when the heart is rilled with 
gratitude for them, and His blessing asked 
upon them, for He glorifies every thing He 
touches. Make Him the honored guest at your 
feast, for at His word the water changes into 
wine ; and when the miracle is wrought, be care- 
ful to return IJiin thanks., 



94 White Lilies 

And those dear afflicted and tempted ones who 
are being tried as by fire, do you praise God in 
the furnace? I think I hear one say: "Why, 
how can I ? I try to be submissive, but I cannot 
say as Paul did, 'We glory in tribulation also.' 
I wish I could." Dear friend, do not think me 
harsh, and lacking in sympathy, but, after all. 
isn't the fault all in yourself? Is it not because 
your will is not lost in God's will ? If it was, I 
think you would not only see that He loves you 
while you are in the furnace, but that you are 
in the furnace because He loves you — loves you 
too well to leave any dross about you, and so puts 
vou where it will all be consumed. Can you not 
praise Him for that? 

But does not God sometimes place those in 
the furnace whom He has already purified ? I 
believe He does. How would those about them 
know that they could glorify God in the fire, 
unless they saw them tried ? Did not Christ 
suffer for others ? And does He not confer an 
honor upon us, when we are thus made partakers 
of His sufferings ? 



Prom the King's Garden. 95 

Did you, dear mother, when your darling lit- 
tle one passed away from your loving embrace, 
to sing among the angels, when vou saw the 
beautiful form lying in the little white casket, 
and your heart was rent with anguish, did you 
remember to praise Him that although you saw 
only the dark side of the picture, there was, after 
all, a bright side ? Did you, in the midst of your 
grief, look up and thank Him that there is a 
heaven to which your child might go, and that 
though we die. we shall live again? Did you 
rejoice that you could lay your weary, aching 
head on the breast of that same dear Saviour 
who carries the lambs in His bosom, and know 
that His heart ached in sympathy with yours? 

I have a friend who watched with one of her 
dear ones through a long and painful illness. No 
one could tell how she sn tiered through those 
weary years, nor how she longed to bear the pain 
in his stead, yet when all was over she said to me, 
though her face was pale and her lips quivered, 
>% How I praise Mod that every thing was ordered 
just as it was. If he had been taken away at the 



96 White Lilies 

beginning of his sickness, I might never have 
heard him say that he was trusting Jesus as his 
Redeemer. How thankful I am for the suffering 
that brought him down low at his Saviour's feet." 
O, when we let God tune our hearts, He gives 
songs even in sorrow's night ! 

Don't you think it would be a glorious thing if 
the injunction of the Psalmist "Let every thing 
that hath breath praise the Lord," could be 
obeyed ? What floods of hallelujahs would fill 
all the earth and sky ! Well, praise is contagious. 
You begin the strain, and keep it up. No matter 
what comes to you, let your heart be full of 
thanksgiving, let it sparkle in your eyes, ring 
from your lips, and show 7 itself in your life, and 
others will be sure to catch it. ' ; Let the inhabi- 
tants of the rock sing." If } t ou cannot sing with 
your lips, surely you can make melody in your 
heart unto the Lord, and joy cannot be hid. 
Perhaps the one who takes up the refrain of your 
heart-song, will be able to sing it with the voice 
also, and thus all may take part in the grand 
doxology, and help to swell the anthem of those 



Feom the King's Garden. 



97 



who sing around the throne, " Unto Him that 
loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own 
blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto 
God and His Father; to Him be glory and do- 
minion for ever and ever. Amen." 




98 White Lilies 



A BAPTISM OF LOYE. 

" Love is of God, and every one that lovethis born of God, 
and knoweth God." 

S I turned to our Sabbath school lesson, this 
first verse brought to mind an incident in m} 7 
own experience. I had a young friend whom I 
loved dearly, and who, I thought, loved me in 
return, and yet she did me a great wrong. Per- 
haps it did not appear to her just as it did to me, 
and j^et \ cannot help thinking, even now, that it 
was done knowingly. I believe I forgave her 
freely and fully. I treated her kindly, and spoke 
well of her to others, mentioning only the good 
traits in her character (of which she had many) 
never intimating, in any way, that she had 
wronged me, and yet I had a strange feeling 
toward her. I did not want to see her, nor have 
any intercourse with her. I hoped she might do 
well, and be happy, but I wanted nothing to do 



From the King's Garden. 99 

with her. I did not think I was wrong in this ; 
I thought nothing more was required of me. 

I went on in this way for a few days, and then 
I became conscious that there was a cloud be- 
tween me and my heavenly Father — a very thin 
cloud, but I was used to walking in the clear light 
of the Sun of Eighteousness, and could not bear 
any thing between us. 

[ wondered what could have caused it, never 
thinking that the experience I have just related 
had any thing to do with it, and being unable to 
find any cause for it, I went and told Jesus about it. 

While I was praying, the words " Thou shalt 
love thy neighbor as thyself," came to me. I 
remembered it is written " If God so loved us, 
we ought also to love one another," and to my 
great surprise I saw that the lack of this love, 
this free, full love, such as my Saviour had for 
me, was the cause of all my trouble. 

Having seen my error, I immediately set about 
correcting it, and if ever I tried to do any thing, 
I tried to love my friend ; but all my trying was 
in vain — love would not come at my bidding. 



100 White Lilies 

Every time I thought the task accomplished, the 
thought of the wrong I had experienced came 
back to me, and I felt she was not worthy of such 
love. But then mv Saviour never withheld His 
great love from me simp]y because I was not 
worth v of it. 

In my extremity I said, I will tell Jesus about 
it ; so I went and told Him I had tried to do what 
He commanded, and could not, and I said, I never 
can love her as I want to, unless the love comes 
to me from Thyself. 

And then it came. Like a baptism, like a 
mighty flood that filled my soul and completely 
enveloped me, and I not only loved my friend 
with that pure, holy love I had desired toward 
her, but 0, how I loved everybody ! And I 
seemed to be looking right up into the face of my 
loving Father, and realized that "God is love ; 
and he that loveth dwelleth in God, and God in 
him." 

As I reveled in the delights of this grand new 
experience, the words of this first verse of our 
lesson came to me, full of meaning. "Love is of 



From the King's Garden. 101 

God." 0, yes, I knew that it was, for had I not 
tried my best to get it and could not until it came 
to me from Him? " And everyone that loveth 
is born of God, and knoweth God." Then I 
claimed the privilege of knowing Him, of being 
intimately acquainted with Him, of leaning on 
His breast, as did the beloved disciple, and of 
understanding Him, as well as the finite can un- 
derstand the Infinite. 

And my love for my Saviour and for my friend, 
won my friend's love for my Saviour. 

Nov. 16, 1879. 




102 White Lilies 



VOICES. 

"The Lord shall cause His glorious voice to be heard." 

?j'HERE are many voices in the world ; the air is 
\j; full of the sound of them ; they come from 
above, and beneath, and around us — voices of 
hope and of fear, voices of love and of enmity: 
voices that thrill our souls with their holy utter- 
ances, and make them reach out with earnest 
longings after all that is pure and right ; voices 
that strive to draw us away from all goodness, 
and contradictory voices that puzzle and bewilder 
us ; voices of friends who seek to give us wise 
counsel, but who are fallible in judgment, and 
whose counsel, therefore, cannot always be fol- 
lowed, and voices of enemies — even the great ene- 
my of our souls, and all his emmissaries, who leave 
no means untried in their efforts to work our ruin, 
even transforming themselves as angels of light, 



Fkom the King's Garden. 103 

if, by so doing, they may accomplish their base 
design. 

Surely we are living in "a tongue dispensa- 
tion," and the strife of tongues waxes louder and 
louder, until, amid this din and confusion, our 
poor troubled hearts know not to whom to turn 
for counsel. 

But hark ! a promise from God's word ! " The 
Lord shall cause His glorious voice to be heard/' 
and though the voices about us are loud and 
clamorous, through all the tumult we hear the 
voice of the King of Kings, our adorable Re- 
deemer. He whispers "peace, be still," to our 
troubled hearts, and immediately there is a great 
calm. He sees our desires to do His will, and 
how difficult it is at times to know just what duty 
is, and He says to us, " This is the way, walk ye 
in it." Then our charmed hearts forget their per- 
plexity, forget to doubt and be fearful, forget all 
else in the delight of walking with Him, of enjoy- 
ing His fellowship, and knowing that He will 
guide us continually. 

Isaiah says, "His name shall be called Won- 



104 White Lilies 

clerful, Counsellor," and I like to connect the two 
words in my own mind, and call Him the won- 
derful Counsellor, for He is that to all who 
seek His counsel. He makes the rough places 
in our pathway plain before us; not always 
smooth, but so plain that we need not fall, nor 
even stumble. He has given us the sweet prom- 
ise, " I will cause them to walk by rivers of 
water, in a straight way, wherein they shall not 
stumble," and blessed be His name, He stands 
ready to verify it to each one of us. 

But who shall hear when the Lord speaks, and 
how may we be able to distinguish His voice 
from the multitude of voices about us? John 
gave us a key to the mystery when he said, "I 
was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard 
behind me a great voice." If we would hear the 
Lord speak we must be in the Spirit — must be 
filled with the Spirit as John, was, then we shall 
hear His glorious voice, and who can tell what 
wonderful things He will reveal to us! Souls 
that are washed in the blood of the Lamb, and 
filled with all the fullness of God, are very sensi- 



From the King's Garden. 105 

tive and susceptible of Divine impressions. If we 
have a living union with God, He will, in some 
way, reveal His will to us. 

Any earthly parent who knows his child's 
greatest desire is to please him, will find a way 
to make his pleasure known to the child, and is 
not our Father's love greater than that of any 
earthly parent? It is written " The meek will He 
guide in judgment," not make them infallible, 
but guide them, by bringing to their mind some 
passage from His word, illuminated by the Spirit, 
or by some providential leading, or in some other 
way, for the Lord is not straitened for w^ays of 
communicating with those whose hearts are open 
to the influences of His spirit. 

I was talking with a friend of some things in 
my own experience — of counsel that I had re- 
ceived at a certain time, and 1 said " How thank- 
ful I am that I did not follow that counsel ; if I 
had, I should have been in the dark now ; but I 
knew that it was not the voice of the Lord, and I 
am not under obligations to obey any other." 
My friend said " It sounded like wise counsel, 



106 White Lilies 

didn't it ? How did you know it was the voice 
of our enemv?" I thought a moment, and then 
was obliged to say to her, I cannot tell you how 
I knew, but somehow it didn't sound like the 
voice of my Saviour. I think I know His voice 
when I hear it, it is so different from all others. 

Afterwards I thought I ought to have been able 
.to. tell her in what the difference consisted, but after 
thinking a great deal about it, I was still unable 
to do so, yet / knew there was a difference, and 
then I remembered that Jesus said, " M/y sheep 
hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow 
Me. And a stranger will they not follow, but 
will flee from him, for they know not the voice 
of strangers." 

I think those who do things that bring a re- 
proach on the cause of Christ, professing to be 
under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, mast fail 
to bring their impressions to the test of God's 
word before they allow themselves to be led by 
them, and if we go contrary to the word, of coarse 
we go astrav, for the teachings of God's word and 
Spirit always harmonize. 



Fkom the King's Garden. 107 

John said the voice he heard was like the sound 
of many waters. When Elijah heard it on mount 
Horeb it was a still small voice, and yet both knew 
it was the Lord who spoke to them. And all 
whose wills are in harmony with His, and who, 
with ears open heavenward, listen for the sound 
of His voice, shall hear Him speak, and under- 
stand that the voice comes from Him. 

"Blessed is the people that know the joyful 
sound, they shall walk, Lord, in the light of 
Thy countenance." 

" 0, come ye and let us walk in the light of 
the Lord. 1 ' 




108 White Lilies 



IN A STRAIT BETWIXT TWO." 

i ^| WOULD be sweet to go home, 

KJ Home to heaven above, 
To dwell in the house 

Of our Father and God; 
Where sickness ne'er enters, 

Where grief has no place, 
Where the sunshine of joy 

Brightens each happy face. 

O, how sweet it must be 

With the ransomed to sing 
The praises of Jesus, 

Oui Saviour and King. 
With hearts filled with rapture, 

His dear face to see, 
And safe in His presence 

Forever to be. 



From the King's Garden. 109 

But here on the earth 

There are sad hearts to cheer, 
And weak ones who wrestle 

With doubt and with fear; 
And many who travel 

The sinner's dark way. 
And know not the bright path 

That leads unto day. 

And how can the weary ones 

Ever find rest ; 
And how may the weak ones 

Of strength be possessed; 
And how shall the erring 

To Jesus be brought, 
Unless some one teach them, 

Whom Jesus hath taught ? 

And 'tis blessed to walk 

With our Jesus below, 
To feel that His blood 

Makes us whiter than snow; 
To proclaim to each captive 

How He can make free — 
How He says to each wanderer 

" Come unto me." 



10 



110 White Lilies 

And sureJy we know 

That His Jove is so great, 
When our life work is ended 

He'll not bid us wait; 
But quickly will say, 

" Tis enough, child come home; ' 
Then gladly we'll answer, 

" Lord Jesus, I come ! " 




From the King's Garden. Ill 



ON WHOM DO YOU WAIT? 

"My soul, wait thou only upon God." 

N whom do you wait in your daily life, my 
brother, my sister ? Do you wait on your- 
self, or on somebody else, or do you wait only 
upon God? How is it in your business life, my 
friend? Do vou aim to conduct vour busi- 
ness so as to make the largest possible amount of 
money, even if you must do some things your con- 
science condemns in order to gain your end, or 
is it your chief object to glorify God in your 
business, leaving all results with Him ? 

On whom do you wait, my toiling brother ? 
Do you work from a certain hour in the morning, 
until a certain hour at night, simply because you 
must in order to gain a livlihood, and provide for 
those who are dependent upon you, thus waiting 
on yourself and your loved ones, or do you recog- 



112 White Lilies 

nize the fact that the Lord has chosen your in- 
heritance for you, that your work is something 
He has given you to do, and perform it as if He 
were standing beside you (for He really is) saying, 
".Do this for Me? " Waiting on the Lord in your 
toil will lighten it wonderfully, and make you a 
better workman than even waiting on your loved 
ones. 

On whom do you wait, my sister, in your home 
life ? Do you keep your house so tidy because 
you love neatness and order, or is it because the 
dear Lord condescends to dwell with you in your 
home, and you want to have every thing as He 
likes to see it? Why do you expend so much 
thought and labor on the little ones of your 
household ? Why seek so earnestly their welfare 
and happiness ? Is it simply because they are 
your children, and you love them ; or have you 
the grander thought that they are the Lord's 
treasures, that you have the privilege of caring 
for them for Him, and that the more beautiful 
they become under your training, the fitter they 
will be to grace His diadem of beauty, when He 



From the King's Garden. 113 

makes up His jewels? Waiting on the Lord 
changes the hardest drudgery into delightful 
service. 

My young friend, struggling to lead a Christian 
life, on whom do you wait when tempted to some- 
thing that you fear may hinder the growth of the 
spiritual life within you ? When you are invited 
to dance, or to attend some questionable place of 
amusement, and your conscience tells you that 
you had better not do it, do you yield to the 
temptation because you think, as I have heard 
some remark, that young people must have some 
enjoyment ? Then you wait upon yourself. Or 
do you yield because all your young friends in- 
dulge in these things, and you fear their ridicule, 
and dislike to be thought singular, and are afraid 
they may become disgusted with your religion if 
you are so very particular about these things ? 
Then you wait upon your friends. It is more 
than likely they will become disgusted if you are 
not particular about these things. Or, when the 
temptation comes, do you resist it in the strength 
of Jesus, preferring His companionship to any so- 



114 White Lilies 

called enjoyment at a place where He could not 
accompany you ? Then you wait on Him, and 
your cup of joy is full. The dear Lord wants 
you to have " a good time," and if you wait only 
upon Him, will surely take care that it is secured 
to you. 

On whom are you waiting in the prayer- meeting, 
timid Christian, when others are using their voices 
in prayer and testimony, and you sit in }^ourseat, 
a silent listener? Are you so quiet because yoia 
are timid, and it seems such a cross to speak or 
pray in the presence of the people, that you shrink 
from it ? Don't you see that is waiting upon 
yourself ? Or, are you silent because you know 
that not having accustomed yourself to praying 
or testifying in the presence of others, or having 
been deprived of the advantages for education 
and culture that some enjoyed, your words would 
not sound as well as theirs, and you dread the 
criticisms of the thoughtless? That is waiting 
upon your brethren and sisters. There is such a 
thing as waiting on the Lord in holy silence. 
Such waiting is full of blessedness : but only 



From the King's Garden. 115 

those who are free to do the Master's bidding, 
and are ready to speak or be silent, as He shall 
command, have the privilege of waiting thus. 

On whom do you wait, lover of holiness, when 
in the presence of those who ignore, or else bit- 
terly oppose, the experience which has brought 
such rest and joy to your soul ? If you listen 
to your adversary, the devil, he will tell you that 
you had better not say any thing about the ex- 
perience of sanctification, let your life be your 
testimony — no one can gainsay that ; but if you 
declare with your lips what God has done for you, 
you may provoke those who oppose such testi- 
mony, and cause them to say that which might 
better be left unsaid. He will tell you that if 
you love peace you had better be silent. But 
Jesus says, " ye are my witnesses;" and He is 
waiting for you to tell what He has done for you. 
And many weary ones about you are waiting for 
a message from the land of rest where you dwell. 
They are hungry to hear about it, and you have 
the blessed privilege of feeding them. O, wait 
on the Lord, without fear of man. He will give 



116 



White Lilies 



you the words He would have you speak, and 
take care of the consequences. 

Isn't it beneath the dignity of all of us, as 
Christians, to wait upon ourselves? And isn't it 
better to wait on the Lord, than on our earthly 
friends, however much we may love them ? 




From the King's Garden. 117 



JESUS DID IT ALL. 
I will declare what He hath done for my soul.' 



NCE my eyes saw nothing comely 

In the lowly Nazarene ; 
All His grace was hidden from me, 

By the clouds of sin between; 
I was blind, but now I see — 

Jesus wrought the cure for me. 

Once my dull ears found no music 
In His tender, pleading voice; 

Now He speaks, and each low whisper 
Makes my trembling heart rejoice. 

His dear word has made me free, 
O, what boundless liberty ! 

Once my robes by sin polluted, 
Were as filthy rags, unclean ; 

In the great King's royal presence, 
I could never thus be seen; 

I am whiter now than snow, 
Jesus' blood has made me sq. 



118 White Lilies 

Once I roamed in deserts dreary, 
Sought, in vain, a place of rest; 

Now my soul, no longer weary, 
Leans entranced upon His breast; 

Blessedness beyond degree! 
Jesus is a rest for me. 

Hallelujah, what a Saviour! 

Half His love was never told; 
I have found His royal favor 

Richer treasure far than gold. 
Praise Him, O, my ransomed soul, 

While eternal ages roll. 

O, that all who hear the story, 
For themselves would taste and see; 

Come to Him; His banner o'er thee, 
Everlasting love shall be; 

To thy weary soul be given, 

Rest on earth and rest in heaven. 



From the King's Garden. 119 



TAUGHT OF GOD. 

11 Come, learn of Me." 

f AUGHT of God. I heard a dear friend use 
these words very often. As we talked over 
the words, or together read the writings of some 
of the Lord's precious ones, my friend would say, 
" No wonder they speak as they do; they are 
taught of God." And as I drank in the glorious 
truths expressed in their words, my soul went out 
in earnest longings that I, too, might enjoy His 
teaching. 

And I was learning of Him then, though much 
of His instruction came to me through others, 
particularly the friend of whom I have spoken. 
I would ask Him to teach me, and then sit down 
and listen, while she, from a rich experience of 
the deep things of God, brought forth treasures 
both old and new. Wonderful redeeming love 



120 White Lilies 

was the theme on which all who frequented her 
house loved to speak, and the lessons I learned 
there can never be forgotten. I think that was 
my Father's best way of teaching me at that time. 
He had many things to say to me directly, much 
that the Holy Spirit alone could teach me, but I 
could not bear it then, so He spoke to me through 
my friend. It was as if He placed me in the 
cleft of a rock, and covered me with His hand 
while He passed by, because I could not bear to 
behold His glory. 

But after a while my friend was taken from 
me. I had been wont to pray as my soul w T ent 
out in deep, earnest longings after God, that 
He would take my hand and lead me, but now I 
changed my prayer, involuntarily, and asked that 
I might lean on Him. After a little I began 
looking about for some one to teach me of Him. 
I had many friends who loved Him, and I thought 
if I called on them at their homes, they would 
certainly talk of His goodness. I called first 
upon one who had sometimes conversed with me 
about these things, but on this particular day her 



From the King's Garden. 121 

attention was absorbed by another topic. We had 
been engaged (with others) in some work for the 
Master, and they, after allowing us to do the 
heaviest part of the work, had managed to get to 
themselves all the credit, at least it appeared so 
to her, and she was so indignant about it that she 
could hardly speak of any thing else ; so I soon 
left her to call on others, but some way I could 
find no one who seemed disposed to talk of God, 
and the way of holiness. 

At last I found myself in front of the residence of 
one of our city ministers, whose wife was a friend 
of mine, and I thought I would call on her. On 
entering her parlor, I found that she had other 
callers, but as I was acquainted with them all, and 
knew them to be members of the Church, I 
thought I had now a grand opportunity for gain- 
ing instruction. 

Again I was doomed to disappointment. They 
were glad to have me with them, and perhaps if 
they had known how hungry I was to hear about 
Jesus, would have said something about Him, 
but I was too timid in those days to say much 
11 



122 White Lilies 

myself, besides being much younger than the rest 
of the company, so I listened for a while as they 
spoke of current events, of the different kinds of 
Church work, and the best methods of perform- 
ing them, hoping to hear them speak of Him 
whom my soul loved. 

I was grieved and disappointed when they 
spoke of every thing but Him, for I knew the 
Bible said, k ' Out of the abundance of the heart 
the mouth speaketh," and I had been accustomed 
to hear "the redeemed of the Lord say so." I 
think I had a right to expect to hear Christians 
talk of the w r ay of salvation, but these thought 
differently, and I returned home thinking sadly, 
there is no one to teach me now. 

But my extremity was God's opportunity. I 
heard His voice speaking to me. Its tones were 
eentle, and 0, so tender, and vet so audible to mv 
spirit's ear that they were almost startling, and 
it said, u Come, learn of Me." 0, precious invi- 
tation ! I realized, as never before, that Jesu^ 
was willing to teach me Himself. It was as if 1 
had been learning in the primary department of 



From the King's Garden. 123 

His school — learning of competent teachers, under 
the supervision of His own watchful eye, but now 
He had promoted me to His own department, and 
I began to receive instruction directly from Him. 
I think there is but one qualification necessary 
for those who would be taught of God. If we 
have this, we may be sure of His instruction ; 
without it we cannot learn of Him. Perfect sub- 
mission is the one thing needful. Our dear sister 
Amanda Smith once said : " If we want God to 
write His law upon our hearts, we must keep still 
and let Him do it; 1 " and our Father's message to 
us is, " Be still, and know that I am God." Of 
course, we must have clean hearts for God to 
write upon, birt if we submit to Him, He will 
make them clean. And we must have unwaver- 
ing confidence in Him, but if we submit, He will 
teach us to trust perfectly. We must also be 
quick to hear and understand when our Father 
speaks to us, but I notice that it is usually easy 
for obedient children to understand what is re- 
quired of them. May the dear Lord keep us 
always so submissive that He can teach us all the 
wonderful things He would have us learn, 



124 White Lilies 



HALF AND HALF. 

"Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet 
water and bitter? " " My brethren, these things ought not 
so to be." 

WAS talking over the parable of the wheat 
and tares with mv class one Sabbath after- 
noon, when one of the boys began looking over 
the school, and picking out those of the members 
he thought worthy of the name of wheat, and 
which should be called tares. I said to him, " Don't 
you think a better plan would be for each of us to 
consider to w r hich class we ourselves belong ? " 
u Well," said he, " I aint a tare, of course I'm not 
bad enough for that ; but then (more slowly) I 
don't know as I'm hardly good enough to be 
wheat: I s;uess I'm about half and half." 

And I am afraid that a great many older people 
make the same mistake my little Sabbath scholar 



From the King's Garden. 125 

made ; they think they can be about half and half. 
They are not sinners, of course ; they're not bad 
enough for that ; but then they are not so good 
as " these holiness people ; " they do not pretend 
to be. (Just as if we were not all under obliga- 
tions to be Bible Christians, whether we pretend 
to be or not.) They attend Church on Sabbath, 
sometimes they attend the weekly prayer-meet- 
ing ; but often it isn't possible for them to be 
present. I'll tell you when you will be sure to 
find them there. Let the pastor announce from 
the desk on Sabbath that a business meeting will 
be held after prayer-meeting, to arrange for a 
social, or festival, or fair, and you will be sure to 
find them in their places at the prayer- meeting. 
I do not give their reason for attending, but they 
are there. 

These people do not like class-meetings very 
well. They don't see how some people can find 
something new to speak of every week ; someway 
they never seem to have any thing to say. Do 
they believe in dancing? Why, they do not 
know as it is wrong to dance; there are many 



126 White Lilies 

worse amusements than dancing, and people, 
especially young people, must have some enjoy- 
ment. They attend a circus now and then, " just 
to see the animals," forgetting that it is written, 
" Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of 
darkness, but rather reprove them." I am afraid, 
yes, T have reason to be quite sure, that some of 
them would be more careful to keep away from 
a holiness meeting than from the opera. Yet 
their names are on the Church record, and they 
call themselves Christians. I wonder if such 
people ever pause to consider that God's Word 
mentions only two classes, u he that is for Me," 
and " he that is against Me ; " " he that gathereth 
with Me," and " he that scattereth abroad," and 
that only two places are mentioned as dwelling 
places for those who have finished their probation 
on earth. As they do not class themselves with 
sinners now, of course they do not expect to be 
classed with them then, and as they do not pre- 
tend to be like those who are wholly the Lord's 
here, how can they expect to share the heaven 
prepared for them ? What will become of them ? 



From the King's Garden. 127 

The picture I have drawn is a sad yet truthful 
one. Dear reader, if you are trying to serve God, 
and self, and sin, all at once, vou will never be 
able to do it, so do not try any longer. Our 
Father has provided better things for us. Just 
take your hands off the world, and reach them 
both out to Jesus. Let Him save you fully, 
and your life will be full of blessing richer than 
you can conceive of now. 

There is a sort of half and half people whom I 
pity, with all my heart. They really do try to live 
Christian lives. Their sins have been forgiven 
for " His name's sake," but they have not been 
delivered from the dominion of sin. They go 
on, from year to year, singing " Prone to wander, 
Lord, I feel it," they " often make crooked paths," 
they stumble and fall, but the dear Lord lifts 
them up again and again. They have " ups and 
downs " in their religious life. They have no 
idea of the grandeur of stepping out boldly on 
the promises, and claiming constant victory 
through the blood of the Lamb. They know not 
the glorious liberty of those who are free in 



128 White Lilies 

Christ Jesus; if they occasionally catch a glimpse 
of it they think they are enjoying a mountain- 
top experience and have no idea it can be 
lasting. 

Much cf this sort of experience is the result of 
a half and half kind of teaching. In -my early 
Christian experience I was associated in Church 
and Sabbath school with a number of other young 
people, all of us desirous of leading earnest Chris- 
tian lives, and when we found that the evil 
tendencies of our hearts kept leading us astray, 
and felt that we must, in some way, get the 
victory over them or they would destroy us, we 
sought counsel of an elderly gentleman whom we 
all respected and loved. I had never heard of 
the doctrine of entire sanctification, but the 
others, it seems, had, and one of them expressed 
a desire for this blessing. Then our friend said : 
u Well, if these things are for us we want them, 
but we must be careful, very careful, about these 
things." He then proceeded to relate an instance 
of a man who professed holiness, yet became im- 
patient at some slight inconvenience, and then 



From the King's Garden. 129 

again charged us to be careful. Having all con- 
fidence in this friend, I then and there resolved 
that I would never make a profession of entire 
sanctification, a resolution which, thank God, 1 
broke soon afterward. T know our friend meant 
well, but why did he not tell us of Enoch, who 
walked with God, of Job, the " perfect man," of 
Paul who said " The law of the Spirit of life in 
Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of 
sin and death," and of the beloved disciple who 
proved by experience that " Whosoever abideth 
in Him sinneth not? " 

This sort of teaching, I am sorry to say, is still 
prevalent. In conversation with a minister one 
day, I quoted the words " Whosover abideth in 
Him sinneth not," when he looked at me in sur- 
prise, and said: "Why, you don't think it 
means just that, do you ? You give the words too 
literal a meaning altogether; that simply shows 
what our lives ought to be ; it is our model and we 
must measure up to it as nearly as possible." He 
explained it to me, but I did not understand His 
explanation. It isn't easy to convince one that a, 



130 White Lilies 

certain experience is not attainable when they are 
living in the enjoyment of it every moment of 
their lives. 

Did not Jesus come to save His people from 
their sins ? Surely then He must be able to do 
it; the plan of salvation is not a failure. Did 
He not say to the man whom He had healed, 
" Sin no more? " He would not have told him 
to do an impossible thing. We who are Sabbath 
school teachers would not tell our scholars to do 
things we know they could not do. We know it 
would be impossible for them to love and respect 
us if we did. We would never win them for 
Christ in that way. If we, then, with our little 
wisdom, can see the folly of such a course, how 
must it appear to our all-wise Saviour? 

The remedy for all this half and half living and 
teaching is in the precious blood shed on Calvary. 
Let those who are appointed to teach the people 
get fully saved themselves, and they will begin 
to " teach men so," for " out of the abundance 
of the heart the mouth speaketh." Let the peo- 
ple all come up to their high privilege in Christ 



From the King's Garden. 131 

Jesus, and though they will long for instruction 
as never before — for none are so teachable as the 
fully saved — they will belong to the company of 
whom John says: "But the anointing which ye 
have received of Him abideth in you, and ye 
need not that any man teach you ; but as the 
same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is 
truth, and is no lie, even ns it hath taught you, 
ye shall abide in Him." Lord, hasten the day ! 
Amen. 



1i 



132 White Lilies 



SOMETHING BETTER 

"God having provided some better thing for us." 

5j'HE key- word of the book of Hebrews, from 
Vfy which my verse is taken, is the word better. 
T ie new covenant better than the old ; Jesus, our 
high priest, better than Aaron and Melchizedek, 
the blood of sprinkling speaking better things 
than that of Abel, and so on through the whole 
book. 

And I find that the key-word of all God's 

dealings with His people is the same; no matter 
how great the blessings He has already bestowed 
upon us, He is always ready to give us something 
better. 

The whole Christian life is full of surprises. I 
remember, and so do you, how it was at the 
time of our conversion ; we had heard, all our 
lives, of the blessedness of having our sins for- 



From the King's Garden. 133 

given, and yet when we came to taste it for our- 
selves, it was so much better than we had ever 
imagined, that we were ready to exclaim : " The 
half was never told ! " We were satisfied then, 
but God knew the way was better farther on, and 
so He led us forth. Sometimes we doubted, but 
He cheered us with the promises. Often we 
were fearful, but He was better to us than all our 
fears. Now and then we wandered from Him, but 
because He was better to us than we were to our- 
selves, He kindly led us back to the fold again ; 
so we grew stronger and stronger, better able to 
contend with adversaries without and foes within 
our hearts. 

But 0, these foes in our hearts, how they 
crippled us! How they hindered our best efforts 
to do our Father's will, and made us cry out in 
bitterness of soul, " When I would do good, evil 
is present with me.'' Did He leave us there ? 0, 
no ; He had provided something better for us, 
and we heard Him say: "Then will 1 sprinkle 
clean water upon you. and ye shall be clean; 
from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, 
12 



134 White Lilies 

will I cleanse you." Then we gladly surrendered 
our all to Him, and He verified His promises to 
us; the power of sin within us was broken ; we 
were made free in Christ Jesus, and became par- 
takers of the blessedness of those who walk in the 
ltght as He is in the light, and know that the 
blood of Jesus cleanseth from all sin. 

And is this the height of Christian experience? 
I used to think so, but after I had passed clean 
over Jordan, and standing on the heights of 
sunny Beulah land, began to look about me, I 
was surprised to find that there was so much land 
yet to be possessed, and as I have pressed for- 
ward, anxious to gain all my inheritance, I have 
found that at each step of the way the beauty of 
the land increases, its fruit becomes sweeter, the 
waters of salvation more refreshing, and I long to 
penetrate still farther into this wonderful country, 
and enjoy more and still more of its richness. 

I heard one say not long ago, that she knew 
she was entirely the Lord's, that she was filled 
with God, and dwelt in God, and yet her soul 
was full of unutterable longings after God, and 



From the King's Garden. 135 

she described her state as one of restful restless- 
ness. 0, these unutterable longings after God 
mean something. He is their author, and He 
intends to satisfy them, not sometime away in the 
dim future, but now. And though we receive 
from Him more than we can ask or even think, 
He still reaches His hand to us and says : a Child, 
take something better." 

Our Father's thoughts toward us are all 
thoughts of love. He delights to give us good 
things; if He withholds from us anv thino- that 
seems desirable, it is only that He may, in its 
place, give us something better. I wish we all 
understood this, it would save so much wonder- 
ing, and, perhaps, some murmuring at God's 
providences. Treasures of gold and silver are 
good, yet they are often withheld from His dear 
children, and those whose hearts are sweetly sub- 
missive to His will, learn, clown in the vale of 
poverty, lessons of His wonderful way of provid- 
ing for those He loves, and of sweet trust in Him, 
that are better than all earthly riches. Freedom 
from suffering is a priceless boon, yet those who. 



136 White Lilies 

suffer submissively and joyfully, learn to bless 
the long, silent hours that, to others, seem to be 
running to waste. 

A friend came one night to talk over with me 
some temporal matters. She spoke of many 
plans she had made, but every one of them had 
been frustrated, then she spoke of a new opening, 
a situation she was hoping to obtain, and she 
said: " This is better than any thing I had 
thought of before. I am so glad I did not take 
either of those other places; I would so much 
rather have this, and if I had made other engage- 
ments, of course I could not take it." Then she 
added, " Now I have done all I could toward 
getting it — J can only wait; but I have prayed 
earnestly for it, for it seems such a good opening 
for me. I have no anxiety about it ; 1 am leav- 
ing all in God's hands ; He is so good I think He 
will surely let me have it ; "don't you ? " 

Her face wore a wistful, almost pleading look, 
as she waited for my answer. I had good reason 
to think the situation not a suitable one for her; 
I saw difficulties in the way that I knew no 



From the King's Garden. 137 

words of mine could make her see, and I knew 
not what to say. 

I lifted a prayer for instruction, and in an in- 
stant the answer came. Then I said : "Yes, I 
think He will certainly let you have it, unless — 
well, I know of but one reason why He should 
not." " And what is that? " she inquired anx- 
iously. " Perhaps He has a better place for you, 
and cannot let you have both. You remember 
telling me, a while ago, you were glad that your 
other plans were broken up, because this was so 
much better? If Grod has something better still 
in store for you, He will give you that instead of 
this." 

Some time after this I saw her at the close of a 
prayer-meeting, and her first words to me- were, 
" O, I have it ! I have it ! " I asked if she meant 
the situation she had spoken of, and she gave a 
little, joyous laugh, and answered, u 0, no; the 
4 something better ' we talked about. I am so 
glad you told me." But, you see, I only gave her 
the message God gave me for her. I never learned 
whether the better gift she had received was a 



138 White Lilies 

temporal blessing, or some spiritual one, the re- 
sult of losing what she had at first desired to 
obtain. It matters not which it was, she under- 
stood that God knew it was better for her, and 
that is enough. 

Dear fellow Christian, when the answer to our 
prayer is long delayed, and it seems, almost, as if 
God had forgotten our request altogether, when 
we are tempted to think that our little affairs are 
so small in His sight that He has overlooked our 
simple petition, when we ask, again and again, 
for something it seems we must have, and yet we 
pass it by without the privilege of even touching 
it, then let us remember that the meaning of all 
this is something better. Our requests are all 
before Him ; He answers every prayer, just when 
it is offered — or at a better time — by giving us 
just what we ask for, or some better gift that we 
could not have received had He given us the 
other. 

God is wisdom, as w r ell as love; and because 
the soul is better than the body, He gives or 
withholds temporal good, as He sees will best 



From the Kino's G-arden. 139 

promote the growth of the spiritual life within. 
So His kindness is just as great when He with- 
holds as when He gives. One must have a will 
in perfect harmony with the will of God to see 
this. Spiritual blessings He gives us just as 
rapidly as we can receive them, that is, just as 
soon as our souls are in a condition to take them. 
The fullness of His salvation He is willing to give 
to all who will receive it NOW. 




140 White Lilies 



HOW THE MESSAGE CAME. 

" Snow and vapor; stormy wind fulfilling His word." 

^OD, who loveth all His children, 
Great and little, every one, 
With a love that passeth knowledge, 

Often as we journey home 
Through life's strange and rugged pathway, 

Sends some words our hearts to cheer — 
Blessed words of sweetest promise, 
Showing He is ever near. 

Near to help us in temptation, 

Near to soothe us in our grief; 
Near to share our gladness with us, 

In our need to send relief. 
And His messengers are many, 

Strange ones, oft, they seem to be ; 
Listen, while I tell the story 

Of the one He sent to me. 



From the King's Garden. 141 

There was something I desired, 

For my blessed Lord to do ; 
(What it was, perhaps, would hardly 

Be of interest to you.) 
Of this service I'd been planning 

I could see most pressing need; 
Yet the way seemed closed before me, 

And my heart was sad indeed. 

But at morn, as I was passing 

By my window, hastily, 
Something captured my attention ; 

Beautiful frost tracery, 
Father's hand had placed upon it; 

There I saw an open door, 
Flowers and fern leaves* clustered round it, 

Clinging vines were drooping o'er. 

I could but admire its beauty, 

Look again, and yet once more ; 
Suddenly these words came to me, 

(I had read them oft before,) 
" Fear thou not, behold before thee, 

I an open door have set; 
Where /set a door wide open, 

No man ever shut it yet." 



142 White Lilies 

It was only a frost picture, 

Penciled on the window pane; 
Yet it brought the Father's message 

To my spirit, just as plain 
As if some swift- winged angel, 

In white robe and starry crown, 
Glad to do the Master's bidding, 

Had from heaven brought it down. 

And it gave my soul fresh courage, 

Strength to trust, and grace to wait 
Till the mist rose from my pathway, 

Till I saw the open gate 
Father's love had set before me ; 

Till I gladly entered through, 
And with joy began the service 

That I had so longed to do. 

This I know : His word He sendeth. 

In whatever way He will ; 
May our eyes be watchful always, 

And our ears attentive still, 
Quick our hearts to catch His meaning, 

And to take Him at His word; 
Useful then our lives, and happy, 

In the presence of our Lord, 



From the King's Garden. 143 



WORDS THAT BURN. 

u His word was in mine heart as a burning lire shut up 
in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could 
not stay." 

lOlTRNING words come from hearts filled with 
/!j the Holy Ghost, and burning with love to 
God and man, and they reach the hearts of those 
who hear them every time. Not one of them is 
lost: for God, who prompted them, takes care of 
them, and uses them to the best advantage. 

There is something peculiar about this lan- 
guage of Canaan. Cold hearted professors of re- 
ligion do not know it. Lips that are used for 
idle talk and foolish jesting cannot speak it. 
One cannot learn it from another, for though 
they may know and speak the same words, the 
true ring is lost from them in the transfer. I 



144 White Lilies 

have beard people talk about heart-purity, who 
acknowledged to me that they knew it only in 
theory, but there was no power in their words, 
and those whose hearts had been cleansed from 
all sin, knew in a moment, that they were hear- 
ing theory, and not experience. There is a vast 
difference between talking full salvation, and 
talking about it, and only those can talk it who 
know its power in their own hearts. 

How our hearts have thrilled under the in- 
fluence of these burning words, as thev fell from 
the lips of God's dear ones. Perhaps it w T as a 
very humble, lowly one who spoke them, per- 
hnps the sentences were not as grammatical, nor 
the thoughts as elegantlv expressed as thev might 
have been, yet the words came to us as a message 
from heaven, for one need not, of necessity, be a 
Doctor of Divinity in order to be God's messen- 
ger. It is written, " If thou take forth the pre- 
cious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth." 

No words are too grand, no expressions too 
beautiful, to be used in telling of the wonderful 
goodness of God to His people, no intellectual 



From the King's Garden. 145 

treasure too rare for His service, vet we have 
heard persons talk about religion in words that 
sparkled and glittered like frost on a cold winter's 
day, and were no less chilling. Some flowers of 
rhetoric, like frost flowers, must be kept cold in 
order to preserve their beauty. Let such persons 
humble themselves under the mighty hand of 
God and lay at His feet the offering of a broken 
spirit; let them begin to cry from the depths of 
their self-humiliation, " Create in me a clean 
heart, God," and they will never afterward be 
able to tell vou whether the language they used 
at that time was elegant or not. 

When you hear one speak burning words, you 
may be quite certain of two things: First.; he 
has lost sight of self, he has hidden away in 
Christ and cares for nothing but the glory of his 
Lord. Second ; in him is the hiding of God's 
power. Filled with the Spirit, he has received 
the fulfillment of the promise, " Ye shall receive 
power after the Holy Ghost is come upon vou, 
and ye shall be witnesses unto Me." They speak 
because silence is an utter impossibility. When 
IS 



146 White Lilies 

one is filled with the Holy Ghost, he must tell of 
it ; the fire within will burn its way out, unless it 
is smothered ; and if it is smothered, it will die. 

I have known persons who were too timid to 
speak in honor of the Master w T hom they loved ; 
I have known them to struggle against their tim- 
iditv, and heard them say thev could not overcome 
it, yet when the Holy Spirit descended upon them 
in power, they could not be silent; so, if they 
were always under its control, they would always 
have something to say in honor of their King. 

A friend of mine hesitated long in seeking the 
blessing of entire sanctification because she shrank 
from confessingnt. At last she yielded. I heard 
one who had urged her to make the surrender, 
ask if she told those about her when she received 
the blessing;, and she exclaimed : " Did I tell of 
it ? Why, how could I help it ? I had to tell it." 
And when asked if she was not troubled by the 
thought that they might think she was boasting, 
she answered, it mattered little what they thought 
of her, she must let them know how wonderfully 
Jesus could save. 



From the King's Garden. 147 

- One characteristic of these burning words, is 
their positi veness. The Master said : " We speak 
that we do knotv ;" and each of His followers has 
the same privilege. One may study a subject 
long and carefully, and yet, because he is fallible 
in judgment, he may be mistaken in his conclu- 
sions ; but when the Holy Ghost reveals a truth, 
and applies it, so that it becomes part of the 
soul's experience, there can be no mistake about 
it. Hence God's saved ones tell of His dealings 
with them in words that have no uncertain sound. 
Many times the one w r ho speaks these burning- 
words is unconscious at the time of the mighty 
influence they are exerting on their hearer. A 
dear young girl wrote me of a visit she paid a 
sick man. She said she was tempted not to goat 
first, for she had been told that he swore at every 
one who spoke to him on the subject of religion ; 
however, being confident of the Spirit's leading, 
she visited him several times. One evening she 
intended calling, but when the time came shrank 
from doing so, because she seemed to have nothing 
to say to him, yet, trusting in the Lord God of 



148 White Lilies 

Israel, she went. While talking to him she 
seemed to have no feeling, only she knew the 
Saviour's words came to her mind with lightning 
rapidity, but, all at once, she noticed that the lady 
who had accompanied her, was weeping, and the 
sick man seemed greatly moved, and before they 
left professed conversion. He has since passed 
away from earth, trusting in Jesus. 

I had another young friend, who, in common 
with the other members of her Church, mourned 
because of the languishing of their Zion, until 
she could endure it no longer. Then, in the night 
season, all alone, she wrestled with God until He 
showed her the cause of its lack of prosperity. 

The next evening, in the prayer-meeting, one 
after another expressed regret at the state of. 
things, and said they were utterly unable to un- 
derstand why it was so. The Spirit whispered to 
her " You know; tell them.'" Ah! she had not 
counted on any thing like that, when she bowed 
before the Father, in agony of soul, the night pre- 
vious. Her cry had been, "Lord, is it I?" and 
when He answered her with soothing words of 



From the King's Garden. 149 

comfort, it had changed to the plea " Then what 
is it, Lord ? " and He had not kept it from her; 
but she had never expected to tell it to another, 
as the Spirit now urged her to do. 

Then came the struggle. The adversary said, 
" It will appear just as if you were trying to teach 
your superiors; that will hurt the cause more 
than your silence possibly could." Still the 
Spirit urged her to speak. The tempter again 
whispered, "You will only make yourself con- 
spicuous, and what you sa\ r will have no weight 
with those who are so much wiser .than yourself." 
But she said " I must obey the voice of the Lord, 
my God," and with one swift cry to Him that 
she might not mistake His leading, and that He 
would take care of the consequences, and make it 
result in glory to His name, even though reproach 
came to her, she arose, delivered the message, 
and sat down with burning cheeks. 

But the pastor, quick to take advantage of the 
situation, followed with an earnest, stirring ap- 
peal to the people, and then came a season of 
prayer, and such humbling of souls before the 



150 White Lilies 

Lord, as was then seen, had not been witnessed 
in that place for many a day. 

At the close of the service, one said to her, 
(perhaps unwisely), ' ; If I could speak as easily as 
you do, and with such effect, I would speak 
whenever opportunity afforded ; you always do 
talk good, but to-night you went entirely beyond 
yourself." " To-night ! " exclaimed rny friend, 
" why, I was never so tried over any thing in my 
life before." Truly she did go entirely beyond 
herself, for if self had been in her way, she would 
never have given the message at all. One may be 
fearfully tempted at such a time and yet, through 
it all, there is a knowledge of divine approval, 
and of fellowship and sympathy with Christ in 
temptation, that can be known only to those who 
have experienced it. 

Thus saith the Lord : " For as the rain cometh 
down and the snow from heaven, and returneth 
not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh 
it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to 
the sower, and bread to the eater : . 

" So shall m}^ word be that goeth forth out of 



From the King's Garden. 151 

my mouth ; it shall not return unto me void, but 
it shall accomplish that which I please, and pros- 
per iri the thing whereto I sent it." 

He has told us how we may be as His mouth 
to speak forth His words — these words that are 
to accomplish such wonders in the earth. May 
He help us to avail ourselves of this glorious 
privilege He offers us. 




152 White Lilies 



DELIVERANCE. 

"Berau.se be hath set his love upon Me, therefore will I 

deliver him." 

j|)ECAUSE he hath set his love upon Me, and 
/!3 not on the vain things of earth : on worldly 
pleasures, or honors, or fame. There may be a 
kind of happiness in these tilings, but the best 
joys they afford, even if they were not so fleeting, 
are not worthy to be compared to the joy of the 
Lord, the Christian's strength. 

Because he has set his love upon Me, on the 
Kins; Himself, and not on His o-ood gnfts. It is 
right for us to love God's gifts, we ought to prize 
them very highly, but it is not well for us to set 
our love upon them, for He may find it best to 
take them from us, and then if our affections 
were clinging to them, instead of to the giver, we 
might be unwilling to let them go. It would be 



From the King's Garden. 153 

a shame to break with Him over His own gifts 
to us. 

Because he hath set his love upon Me. I used 
to read the words " For I the Lord thy God am a 
jealous God, n and wonder how that could be, 
when He has so plainly told us that for a man to 
seek his own glory is not glory. I knew He was 
absolutely holy, I could not think He was am- 
bitious to receive honor and praise from men, it 
seemed so unlike what I had learned of His char- 
acter, and whenever the subject came up before 
my mind. I would dismiss it at once ; I would not 
think about it. But since I have come to know 
Him better (for the secret of the Lord is with 
them that fear Him) I think I understand it. I 
believe we have a right to make reverent inquiry 
concerning the character of our God, that we may 
adore its matchless perfections. I see now that 
it is His desire for our happiness that makes Him 
a jealous God ; it is because He sees that our 
only safety is in setting our love on Him, and 
Him alone. 

When we can say truthfully, " All my springs 



154 White Lilies 

are in Thee," we begin to live a life that is really 
worth living. 

Because he hath set his love upon Me. This 
love that fixes itself, in all its intensity, on God, 
has nothing narrow, nor cramped, nor selfish 
about it. It fills the soul, and then overflows 
and spreads out until it takes in not only those 
who are of the household of faith, but all human- 
ity. And there are no others upon earth who 
love their friends so dearly as those who are 
willing to forsake them, at a moment's warning, if 
necessary, in order to follow Him on whom they 
have set their love. 

There is no perhaps in God's promises. They 
are not sometimes yea, and sometimes nay, but 
every one of them is yea and amen in Christ 
Jesus. He says He will deliver those who set 
their love upon Him, and He will certainly do it. 
Then, being confident of this, the question natur- 
ally arises, from what will He deliver us? We 
are taught to pray "Deliver us from evil." Sin 
in the soul is the greatest of all evils, and so, on 
the strength of this promise, we may expect de- 



Prom the King's Garden. 155 

liverance from it. We are told to reckon our- 
selves dead indeed unto sin, but we must be sure 
first that its power within us is broken, that we 
are dead to it, else our reckoning will be a false 
one. 

One promise of such deliverance is certainly 
enough for us to venture our all upon, yet God, 
in His great love for us, has placed them all 
through the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. 
The words " Sin shall not have dominion over 
you," are peculiarly precious to me. 

There is deliverance for us in the hour of temp- 
tation, tco. But perhaps one will say, " If we 
are dead to sin, can we be tempted?'' Cer- 
tainly we can. Do you think the evil desires 
and passions that have been cast out of a soul 
never seek to reinstate themselves in their old 
place again? And then our blessed Lord, who 
had never sinned, was tempted, and the servant is 
not greater than his Master. He " suffered being 
tempted," and so must we ; but we need not be dis- 
heartened at this, for He triumphed, and we shall, 
too, if we trust Him. 



156 White Lilies 

Victory in every tiying hour is part of our 
inheritance. Jesus purchased it for us, and we 
have a right to claim it in His name. He wants 
His followers to be men and women of victorv. 
I think I shall never forget how, in the hour of 
sore temptation, I opened my Bible to look for 
help, and read these words: "Truly my soul 
waiteth upon God : from Him cometh my salva- 
tion, He only is my rock and my salvation, He is 
my defense ; 1 shall not be greatly moved." 

Then the enemy whispered to me that David 
knew it was impossible to endure such severe 
conflicts without yielding a little, hence he said, 
" I shall not be greatly moved/' 

I had never noticed these verses before, but I 
was not satisfied with such testimony to God's 
keeping power. I thought if David was obliged 
to yield a little, one as weak as myself must un- 
doubtedly yield a great deal ; so I read on, hoping 
to find something firmer to rest upon. And T 
did find it. David went on to say, speaking to 
his enemies, " How long will ye imagine mischief 
against a man ? Ye shall be slain all of you^ 



From the King's Garden. 157 

and, after a little, as his confidence in God grew 
strong, he burst forth in the same expressions 
used at first, only omitting one word, and thus 
changing his song of doubt to one of victory : 
" He only is my rock and my salvation, He is my 
defense; I shall not be moved." I had found the 
help I needed ; I closed my Bible, trusted in God, 
and was kept. 

" Fear thou not, for I am with thee; be not 
dismayed, for I am thy God; I will strengthen 
thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold 
thee with the right hand of My righteousness. 

"Behold all they that were incensed against thee 
shall be ashamed and confounded ; they shall be 
as nothing; and they that strove with thee shall 
perish. 

" Thou shalt seek them, and shalt not find them, 
even them that contended with chee ; they that 
war against thee shall be as nothing, and as a 
thing of nought. 

" For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right 
hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help 
thee." 

14 



158 White Lilies 

These words seem to encourage us to expect 
deliverance from the fear of our enemies, as well as 
from their power. Indeed the Bible tells us plainly 
that whoso hearken eth unto Him, shall dwell 
safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil. But 
let us not think this an excuse for carelessness. 
Let us be watchful always. " A prudent man 
foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself ; but the 
simple pass on, and are punished." Let us be 
numbered among the prudent ones, who, knowing 
the enemy is ever near, keep hidden away in 
Christ. "The beloved of the Lord shall dwell in 
safety by Him ; and the Lord shall cover him all 
the day long." 

This freedom from the fear of evil gives won- 
derful rest to the soul ; it puts an end to all 
worry, to all anxious thought about the future, 
and gives one the opportunity of settling down 
securely on the promise, " All things work to- 
gether for good to them that love God." 

We have also the promise of deliverance from 
darkness; those who have set their love upon 
King Jesus are privileged to walk always in the 



Fkom the King's Garden. 159 

sunlight of His smile. Even if we are surrounded 
by darkness of the densest kind, the light of His 
countenance can penetrate it, and the eye of faith 
catch its radiance, too. " This, then, is the mes- 
sage which we have heard of Him, and declare 
unto you, that God is light, and in Him is no 
darkness at all" We are invited to abide in Him, 
and, since He is light, to abide in Him and to 
abide in the light are one. 

There is deliverance for us in the house of sor- 
row and bereavement. Even though we cry out 
with the Psalmist, "All thy waves and thy bil- 
lows are gone over me," there is left us the 
blessed assurance that, after all, they are God's 
waves and billows ; He holds them in His hand ; 
He has said u When thou passeth through the 
waters, I will be with thee ; " and His presence 
with us is deliverance. 

So there is deliverance for us all through life, 
and even in the hour of death, and from the 
power of the grave. 0, wonderful deliverance ! 
But we must not set our love upon this. The 
Giver is better than the gift ; the Deliverer more 



160 White Lilies 

worthy our affection than the deliverance. Let 
us give ourselves entirely to Him, that He may 
so bind us to Himself with cords of love, that it 
will be impossible for us to wander from Him ; 
then He can work out, in and for us, this great 
deliverance. 




From the King's Garden. 161 



GOD'S WORD. 

" The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in 
a furnace of earth, purified seven times." 

iFOD, our Father, has given to us a very strong 
v/ proof of His kindly feeling toward us in the 
gift of His Holy Word. We ought to prize it 
highly, for it is a love gift. And surely it is a 
most wonderful book, so simple that any child 
can learn the way of salvation from it, and yet so 
full of rich, deep meaning that the wisest might 
study it for ages, and not bring to light one-half 
its treasures. 

How precious are the promises it contains ! and 
how secure! The saints in all ages have built 
their hopes upon them, and found them a sure 
foundation. And the commands are just as pre- 



162 White Lilies 

cious ; indeed, to those who read them aright, 
they are promises. For instance, the command 
"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy 
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy 
strength, and with all thy mind ; and thy neigh- 
bor as thyself," when read by the eye of faith, 
under the illumination of the Holy Spirit, is a 
promise that God will enable us thus to love. 

Then how wonderful are the accounts of His 
dealings with His people in days of old, and how 
full of encouragement to us. " That which hath 
been is now. " His power is the same as in former 
times. Did He keep Enoch from falling while 
he walked with Him three hundred years? Then 
He can uphold us. Did He enable Abraham so 
to trust Him that his faith was counted to him 
for righteousness, and he was called the friend of 
God ? Then He will do the same for us. Daniel 
and the Hebrew children teach us blessed lessons ; 
so do Paul and the beloved disciple. Surely we 
are compassed about with a great cloud of wit- 
nesses to His saving and keeping power, but we 
must study their history, and learn how they ob- 



From the King's Garden. 163 

tained the victory, if we would profit by their 
example. 

God's word is sure, we may safely rest upon it. 
One " thus saith the Lord " is worth more than 
all the opinions of all the learned men that ever 
existed. Then let us study the Word, not to 
criticize it, not to speculate about its meaning, 
but with a spirit of reverent inquiry, a desire to 
know what message our Father has recorded there 
for us. 

We will never know the preciousness of the 
Bible, if we skim over its chapters lightly, just 
because it is our duty to read them. We must 
search it carefully, hide its truths in our hearts, 
and work them out in our experience, until they 
become our own, a part of our very being. Then 
we can say, "Thy words were found and I did 
eat them, and thy word was unto me the joy and 
rejoicing of my heart." 

It is wonderful how scripture unfolds itself to 
us when we do thus work it out ; how the deep 
things of God are revealed to us When we by 
faith have secured the fulfillment of one promise 



164 White Lilies 

in our hearts and lives, we immediately find an- 
other, the promise of some richer experience, and 
then one still beyond that, and so we are lifted 
higher and higher, quite into heaven. How often 
the same words seem to increase in depth of 
meaning as our experience deepens. How often 
a passage that conveyed but little meaning to us 
when we read it, comes back in our time of need, 
full of significance, laden with help and cheer. 
Dear reader, if you are neglecting your Bible for 
other books, you are defrauding yourself of one 
of the greatest privileges infinite love could pro- 
vide for you. 

We should be careful to study the Bible under 
the illumination of the Holy Spirit, and not trust 
to the light of intellect. The Spirit is the true 
interpreter of the Word. " He shall glorify Me," 
said our blessed Saviour, u for he shall receive of 
Mine, and shall show it unto you.' 1 u He shall 
teach you all things, and bring all things to your 
remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you/' 

A strong, symmetrical Christian character, and 
a life full of rest and happiness, are the inevitable 



From the King's Garden. 



165 



results of taking God at His word ; but how can 
we do this, unless we are familiar with it? Let 
us be careful that we do not, through our own 
neglect, lose our rich inheritance. " Let the word 
of Christ dwell in you richly." 




166 White Lilies 



THE WHITE STONE. 

" To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hid- 
den manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the 
stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving 
he that receiveth it." 

THINK, as a general thing, very little de- 
pendence should be placed in dreams, as some 
bad people have good dreams, and many good 
people have had very unpleasant ones ; still I 
believe it is sometimes our Father's good pleasure 
to use them to impress upon our minds some im- 
portant lesson He would have us learn, or to 
comfort us in sorrow. I have already written two 
that have been very encouraging to me, and hesi- 
tate before giving another ; yet this one gave such 
help in a dark and trying hour, that I cannot 
refrain from telling it. 

There was a time in my experience when cir- 
ci;mstances seemed to conspire to make my path 



From the King's Garden. 167 

a peculiarly unpleasant one, and the enemy, tak- 
ing advantage of the situation, as is his custom, 
began to reason with me thus: "God is not deal- 
ing very kindly with you ; He could have given 
you an easier path just as well as not. You have 
loved and trusted Him, and now, in your time of 
need, He does not send you relief." Then he told 
me to notice how differently He was dealing with 
a friend of mine, who, though a professing Chris- 
tian, seemed to seek first her own ease and enjoy- 
ment, and then he dared to ask me if I considered 
Him an impartial God. 

It was but a short time since I had found^rest 
in Jesus, and I had not yet learned that the hard- 
est experiences in the Christian life are usually the 
most strengthening. I could not answer the 
arguments the enemy kept repeating, over and 
over again, to me, but I could trust Him w r ho 
died forme; still I made the great mistake of 
supposing that I ought to be able to vindicate 
His cause, and was troubled because I could not. 

That night I had a dream. I believe my Father 
sent it to help me. I thought, in my dream, that 



168 White Lilies 

I was standing in a dark place — so very dark 
that I could almost feel the darkness; I had no 
idea where I was, and dared not take a step lest 
I should walk into some danger. 

Pretty soon the lightning began to flash, and, 
by its light, I saw that I stood in a narrow path- 
way, hemmed in by rocks that rose on each side, 
far above my head. As the lightning glanced from 
peak to peak, I saw just before me, a dark, sullen- 
looking stream of water (every thing was dark 
in that terrible place.) In an instant I knew that 
I must cross it. Of course I had no idea of its 
depth ; I tried to measure its breadth with my 
eyes, but the lightning flashes were so fitful — only 
lighting the place for an instant and then leaving 
me in that dreadful darkness again — that I found 
it impossible to discern the opposite shore. O, 
how I shrank from stepping into those waters, and 
yet I was quite sure I must pass through them. 

But while I stood there, shrinking and tremb- 
ling, far off on the waters I saw the faint glim- 
mering of a light. Nearer and nearer it came ; 
it was a peculiar light; I have never seen any 



From the King's Garden. 169 

thing like it ; sometimes I think perhaps it was in 
appearance, something like that of our Saviour's 
garment at the time of His transfiguration, for it 
seemed to come from something that was white 
and glistening. 

When it came near enough, I saw that it was 
the shining of a white stone, that floated along on 
the water, till it came to the shore just at my feet, 
and rested there. I was astonished at the sight 
of a large stone floating on the water, and became 
still more astonished when I saw a letter come 
out upon its surface, as if chiseled by some un- 
seen hand, and then another, and another, until 
my whole name was graven there. Then, as I 
still gazed upon it, it became so exceeding bright 
that I could not endure the sight, and was obliged 
to turn away my eyes, and when I was able to 
look for it again, it was gone. 

But how could I help understanding that God 
wanted me to have a Christian character as spot- 
less as the pure, white stone, that He fnight, in 
the dark places of life, work out upon it, little 
by little, the new name promised to him that 
overcometh ? 
15 



170 White Lilies 



THE DIVINE ANOINTING. 

1 ' God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness." 

If WONDEE just how David felt after Samuel 
[ anointed him king over Israel, and then went 
away and left him to go right on, keeping his 
father's sheep ? The hosts of Israel knew nothing 
about it ; they recognized him only as the shepherd 
boy — the youngest of Jesse's large family of 
sons — but he knew that he was a king, for the 
anointing was on him. I imagine that little things 
that tried and troubled him before, had no power 
over him after that. When the hot summer sun 
beat down upon his head, when the sheep would 
stray away, and he became tired and dusty with 
the long, weary search after them, when he was 
obliged to fight with the lion and the bear that 
sought to destroy the flock, and when his brothers 
taunted him (as we learn they did) about keeping 



From the King's Garden. 171 

the few sheep in the wilderness, I can almost see 
him lift his eyes toward Jerusalem, and hear him 
say : " Well, never mind ; it is only for a little 
while, for the anointing is on me, and I am a king ; 
I'll be patient for God's promises are sure, and in 
His good time I shall go up to Jerusalem, and 
be recognized as ruler of the nation " 

And I think it is about the same with God's 
people when He puts the Divine anointing — 
the baptism of the Holy Ghost — upon them. 
He doesn't often take His anointed ones right 
away from earth to sit with Him on His throne ; 
He usually sends them right back to their accus- 
tomed place and work. Perhaps the place is an 
humble one, and the work hard and uninviting ; 
they have thought, many times, that it was, of all 
places, the one they would never have chosen for 
themselves, but now every thing seems changed. 
Their surroundings are the same, but some way 
they do not fret them as they did before, for 
they seem lifted above them. What makes the 
difference ? Why, the anointing is on them. And 
when the wearisome duties and trials of life 



172 White Lilies 

would drag them down to the earth, they lift their 
longing eyes to the New Jerusalem — the city of 
our God — and catch inspiration from the thought 
that, when life's journey is ended, they shall hear 
the Saviour say : " Come ye blessed of my Father, 
inherit the kingdom prepared for you," and the 
joy and trust of that heavenly home will be all 
the sweeter for the thought of the heavy burdens 
they once bore, but have laid aside forever. 

There are times when the thought of our heav- 
enly home would fail to keep us patient and 
sweet-spirited. Heaven seems so far away, life's 
journey so long, and its crosses and burdens so 
hcavv, but the anointing never fails us. Well 
may the Psalmist call it the oil of gladness, for it 
keeps the heart glad under all circumstances. It 
is like a well-spring of joy, ever springing up in 
our hearts, making us strong to do, and dare, and 
suffer for the Master. 

David waited a long time, and had his faith and 
patience severely tested, before the kingdom really 
became his. But, at last, the glad day came, and he 
was proclaimed king. So, though to us the waiting 



From the King's Garden. 178 

time may seem long, there will come a day of 
triumph — a day when all our trials, and sorrows, 
and death itself, shall be swallowed up in victory ! 
" Fear not, little flock, it is your Father's good 
pleasure to give you the kingdom." Jesus said: 
" I go to prepare a place for you," and " I will 
come again and receive you unto myself." And 
we know that what He has promised, He is able 
to perform. 

After David was crowned king, and went up to 
Jerusalem, he was obliged to drive out the heathen 
inhabitants, build his own palace, and set up his 
throne there. But when we reach our heavenly 
home, we will find all things ready for us, for our 
God has prepared for us a city. " We know that 
if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dis- 
solved, we have a house of God, a building not 
made with hands, eternal in the heavens." 0, 
blessed assurance ! We know not the glories of 
that wonderful abode ; the inspired apostle has 
given us a word-picture of it, but just as we often 
find words too tame to describe the wonderful 
experiences of our souls under the influence of 



174 White Lilies 

the Divine anointing, he seemed to find thein in- 
adequate to describe what he beheld in his vision, 
but he told us " The Lamb which is in the midst 
of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them 
unto living fountains of water," and we who are 
fed by Him here, with the bread of life, and enjoy 
His leading, have some idea what that means. 

David reigned over Israel forty years — seven 
years and six months in Hebron, and thirty-three 
years in Jerusalem — yet there came a time 
when his reign was over. Old age came upon him, 
and sickness, and then death came, and he was laid 
away to rest, while Israel mourned their fallen king. 
But our kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. We 
are anointed kings and priests unto our Lord, 
and we shall reign with Him, for ever and ever. 
When we have once passed through the pearly 
gates into the City, we shall never, never be ban- 
ished from it again. Old age, and sickness, and 
death cannot reach us there ; sorrow and sighing 
shall flee away. We shall enjoy the society of 
our loved ones, without a thought of separation 
to mar that enjoyment. 



From the King's Garden. 175 

"O heaven, sweet heaven! 

Earth's fairest and best 

Are gathered there, 

In that home of the blest ; 

What hallowed communion ! 

What joy! What rest! 

In the beautiful city of God ! " 

But every thing depends upon our having the 
Divine anointing upon. us. No anointing, no 
kingdom ; no anointing, no crown, no palms of 
victory, no right to the tree of life, no fellowship 
with the saints in light, no seeing the King in 
His beauty. And if we w T ant this anointing, we 
must get it now. We have the promise that our 
bodies shall be changed at the resurrection, but 
no such promise is made in relation to the soul. 
We must have the anointing that gives victory 
over sin before death overtakes us, or our lives 
will end in sorrow and despair. Who will seek 
this wonderful anointing? Who will seek it 

NOW? 



176 White Lilies 



SOUL MUSIC. 

" Making melody in your hearts unto the Lord." 

jUEAVEN'S joy bells in my soul, 
/!j Ringing, sweetly ringing; 
Messages of rest and love, 

To my spirit bringing; 
God's own hand doth make them chime, 
Keeps them ringing all the time; 
O, their music is sublime, 
Like the angels' singing. 

Joy bells ring within my soul, 

When my path is pleasant; 
Jesus has in His control, 

Future, past and present; 
If He leads where flowers spring, 
Skies are blue, and glad birds sing, 
Why should not the joy bells ring, 
For a life so pleasant ? 



From the King's Garden. 177 

Joy bells ringing all the time, 

Adverse winds about me, 
Only make them sweeter chime ; 

Storms are all without me, 
In my soul 'tis always light, 
Christ's own presence makes it bright, 
Where He dwells is never night, 
Though 'tis dark about me. 

Joy bells ring when o'er my path 

Fierce temptations hover ; 
For, with His almighty hand, 

Christ my head doth cover ; 
And He whispers " In thy soul 
Sin shall never have control ; 
I, who cleansed, will keep thee whole, 
Only trust me ever," 

Happy, happy, golden bells, 

Never cease your ringing ; 
When I reach the heavenly hills, 

Hear the ransomed singing, 
I shall find your song the same; 
To the Lamb that once was slain, 
To the dear Redeemer's name, 
Endless praises bringing. 



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